Stream It Or Skip It: ‘Gwyneth Vs. Terry: The Ski Crash Trial’ on Max, A He-Said She-Said Account Of The Court Trial That Gripped A Nation For 8 Days

2023 will be remembered as the year of Taylor Swift, of Barbenheimer, and of course, as the year that Gwyneth Paltrow was sued for a skiing accident where she yelled, “You skiied into my effing back!” at an optometrist. Just to immortalize that moment, Max is gifting us Gwyneth Vs. Terry: The Ski Crash Trial, an hour-long documentary examining both sides of the court case that gripped the nation this past spring, between Paltrow and Terry Sanderson.

Opening Shot: Deer Valley Ski Resort, Park City Utah. February 26, 2016. We watch a dramatic reenactment of a skier falling.

The Gist: In 2016, Terry Sanderson and Gwyneth Paltrow collided on a ski slope in Park City. Who skied into whom though? That’s the question at the heart of this documentary. Sanderson claims that Paltrow hit him from behind and caused him serious brain injuries, which prompted him to sue her for $300,000. Paltrow countersued for $1, maintaining her innocence, and claiming Sanderson was the one at fault.

The first half of the documentary is dedicated to Terry’s side of the story. Among those interviewed are Terry’s former partner, Karlene Davidson, and his doctor, Alina Fong, who describe Terry as a changed man after being involved in the ski accident, on account of the brain injury he suffered. The film also shows the way that Paltrow’s legal team used testimony from Sanderson’s own daughters, which depict him as estranged from one of them, to create an unflattering portrait of his character, but it also shows how Sanderson’s legal team tried to depict Paltrow as reckless, including showing footage of her on a scooter nearly sideswiping a bus, to prove that she’s prone to accidents such as this.

Coverage of the trial exploded four days in when Paltrow herself was called to the stand (we all remember where we were when she told the lawyers that she yelled “You skied into my effing back!” at Sanderson). Part two, Gwyneth’s side, starts with her testimony, in which she describes being skied into and having two skis slide through her legs. Juror Samantha Imrie, who is interviewed here, states that Paltrow was credible, but also appeared to empathize with Sanderson, which made Imrie believe Paltrow was telling the truth. The jury ultimately reached a verdict declaring Sanderson at fault for the accident after deliberating for only two hours. Was the verdict fair? Did Paltrow receive favorable treatment because she’s a celebrity? Did she use her wealth to hire lawyers that out-lawyered Sanderson’s? Unfortunately, those questions are unanswerable by this documentary, but at least we get to relive the court case that gripped us for eight days in March 2023.

What Shows Will It Remind You Of? As this is part of Max and Discovery+’s Vs. series, this documentary is produced in the same format as Johnny Vs. Amber and Kim Vs. Kanye: The Divorce, which depict the two perspectives in high profile court cases using witnesses and testimony from both sides.

Sex and Skin: None.

Our Take: Those of us who work in offices are all too familiar with the concept of a meeting that could have been an email. Along those lines, I feel like this documentary is a movie that could have been an Instagram reel. It’s essentially a compilation of the biggest moments from the trial, the most shocking bits of testimony, archival interview clips of Paltrow that were used as evidence of her character, and all the Tweets people sent describing the spectacle of the trial. On the one hand, I want to say that this is entirely too long and I can’t believe we’re still spending time thinking about this absurd trial, and on the other hand, I am 1000% invested in all of the GOOP-y goodness, because we all need a diversion from this cruel world.

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There’s no question that Terry Sanderson suffered greatly after this accident, but there’s no denying that this was a weird moment in the zeitgeist, one that was equally campy and meme-able, mostly because it felt kind of unbelievable, and one that Sanderson brought upon himself. What’s most shocking is that this documentary completely ignores one of the most viral moments of the trial, lawyer Kristin VanOrman’s exchange with Paltrow while the actress was on the stand, which most definitely didn’t help Sanderson’s case. When VanOrman spoke to Paltrow, who was under oath at the time, she asked her bizarre questions including whether Paltrow was a good tipper, awkwardly discussed her height, and made jokes about fashion.

As much as I think the time to discuss this particular trial has come and gone, the Vs. series always does a pretty good job presenting multiple sides to controversial stories, and here is no different. You’ll come away feeling equally empathetic toward Sanderson (perhaps even toward Paltrow, too), but with some wiggle room to make your own decision about what’s fact and what’s fiction in all of this.

Parting Shot: An epilogue explains that one month after the trial, on April 29, 2023, Paltrow waived Sanderson’s liability to pay her legal fees, and in exchange, he agreed not to appeal the court’s decision.

Performance Worth Watching: Juror Samantha Imrie voted in favor of Paltrow in the case, but in her interviews, she walks us through what went through her and other jurors’ minds as the evidence was presented and how she came to that conclusion. She also refers back to self-taped videos she took of herself, daily video diaries where she tried to capture as much of what happened during each day of the trial for posterity, which proves to be useful here.

Memorable Dialogue: “It was almost black and white at the end, there was no way the collision could have happened in the way Terry Sanderson described it,” Imrie explained as justification for the jury’s verdict.

Our Call: STREAM IT! This special is a fond memory of a truly odd moment in time. It avoids being too salacious and trashy (despite the fact that the subject matter could easily go that way), and looks at things from a legal perspective more than a tabloid headline perspective to represent both parties as well as it can.

Liz Kocan is a pop culture writer living in Massachusetts. Her biggest claim to fame is the time she won on the game show Chain Reaction.