This Much We Know: Review

13th November 2023

Las Vegas, Nevada is one of the most famous places in the world. Conjuring up all kinds of images, people may think of the huge casinos and the bright lights and not to mention all the famous people that have performed there.

However, there’s another side to Las Vegas and thoughts of the seedy underbelly with people addicted to gambling and its history with nuclear testing is also something to consider. Las Vegas also has the highest suicide rate of anywhere in the country, and the mystery of why that is has never been determined.

This Much we Know is a documentary directed by Lily Frances Henderson which starts out as an intimate look at one young man who died by suicide and turns into a wider investigation into why Las Vegas has such a high suicide rate. Looking at the issues surrounding the famous Sin City, Henderson’s documentary ensures that no stone goes unturned as she explores the possible reasons for such tragedy.

Talking to many experts from psychologists to law enforcers, it starts to feel that Henderson’s documentary is focussing a little too much on the cold, hard facts. The clinical examination of the subject may be respectful to those individual cases where people have taken their own lives, but it feels like it only scratches the surface.

However, This Much we Know has a deeper thread running underneath and that’s due to Henderson’s own experience with losing a loved one. Something which perhaps starts to become about how she’s coming to terms with her own loss.

Although this does get touched upon, the audience never really sees how much the loss affects the director though. Instead, choosing to focus on the wider causes and the way the US deals with mental health issues.

Whilst being a tribute to those who were lost and the ways in which death by suicide can affect so many people, This Much we Know won’t give any answers to why our loved ones may choose to take their own lives. Dismissing the larger issues such as gambling addiction and the fallout from nuclear waste in things such as rising cancer rates, This Much we Know seems only to know what it can get from a book.

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