This Sunday marks the debut of Weiner, a documentary that follows former congressman Anthony Weiner in his attempt to overcome a sexting scandal and run for mayor of New York City—only to be felled, somewhat inexplicably, by another sexting scandal. The movie, which will appear at the Sundance Film Festival, is the latest misadventure in the genre among seekers of that high office. In 2013, you may recall, front-runner Christine Quinn, Bloomberg’s heir apparent, also decided it would be a cagey idea to allow a film crew from The New York Times to follow her around the campaign trail. But as her support in the polls began to fade, the crew captured Quinn’s disappointment and rage. The resulting 30-minute film, Hers to Lose, was poignant, real, and touching, and a colossal political mistake.

Weiner’s own political career may be over, but Weiner is likely to pose more trouble for his wife, Huma Abedin, a longtime senior advisor to Hillary Clinton and the vice-chair of her presidential campaign. The timing is particularly thorny. As I noted in my recent profile, it is increasingly unclear whether Abedin is Clinton’s secret weapon or her next big problem.

According to the Times, the film portrays Abedin as a politically calculated scold. It was she that suggested Weiner run for mayor in the first place (“She was very eager to get her life back that I had taken from her,” Weiner notes), and she who fixated on both the most pressing campaign matters (relentless fund-raising) and the most prosaic (choosing the sort of pants he should wear, for instance). That’s not to say that Abedin didn’t have her own private moments of doubt. After the second round of sexting became public, the paper notes, she sought the advice of Philippe Reines, a longtime advisor to Clinton, about whether she should stick by her husband. Abedin and Weiner asked to view the film in advance of its debut, but were turned down.

By John Minchillo/A.P. Images.

Weiner is actually the second documentary about his failed campaign for mayor. Chutzpah, an 11-minute film produced by the journalist Peter Savodnik, was posted online in 2013. Unlike with Weiner, Weiner and Abedin did not cooperate with Savodnik’s film, but Weiner did not block him, either. Chutzpah reveals Weiner’s cockiness, his ego and bravado and his relentless pursuit of victory even as his dream was evaporating. “There’s a real appeal to him,” Savodnik tells me. “He’s super-smart, hyper-aggressive; he’s got a dollop of Ed Koch and Lenny Bruce, maybe—less funny—but, still, there’s that deeply New York aspect to him, which is ultimately charming, abrasive, self-effacing. All of which made for a great character,” he explains.

The big difference between Weiner and a candidate such as Abedin’s boss, however, is discipline. “It’s O.K. to have your private e-mail server as long as you’ve got a team of loyal lieutenants who are going to cordon off, who are going to help you fend off the press or your opponents,” Savodnik says. “But if you’re Anthony Weiner, he doesn’t have that. He doesn’t have that discipline.”

Savodnik made several attempts to catch Abedin for an interview as she was leaving their apartment or around town. But that did not happen. He says he feels sorry for her. “If I were Huma, I would just be very disappointed in him,” he says. “I don’t know that I’d be angry necessarily but I’d be disappointed.”

I agree with Savodnik. I suspect Abedin is deeply disappointed by her husband and the distressing turn his once promising political career has taken. He remains, essentially, unemployable, as was made abundantly clear by his brief stint last summer at a public-relations firm. That reality puts even more of the financial burden on Abedin, who is forced to support the couple—to cover the costs of the couple’s Union Square area rental and their son’s private school—and it raises the stakes for Hillary to keep doing all that she can to support her protégé while distancing herself from Weiner.

Through my reporting, it became clear that Abedin is every bit as relentless as her boss. But the shrewd discipline she shows in her day job simply doesn’t seem to translate into her personal life. It’s likely that Weiner will once again complicate Abedin’s life at the very moment in which her boss can least afford it.