Film Review – Spoiler Alert
Spoiler Alert (M)
Directed by: Michael Showalter
Starring: Jim Parsons, Ben Aldridge, Sally Field
Review by: Julian Wright
Grab a box of tissues, because once Spoiler Alert, based on Michael Ausiello’s memoir titled Spoiler Alert: The Hero Dies, gets past the rom-com cliches, it will have you bawling.
TV Guide journalist and Smurf nerd Michael Ausiello (Jim Parsons) is single a gay man living in New York during the early 2000s.
While out at club one weeknight, he meets dreamy jock Kit Cowan (Ben Aldridge) and the two opposites form an unlikely relationship.
We follow as Michael and Kit endure high and lows in their long-term relations, from moving in together, coming out to parents, fights, therapy and even living separately.
But it is when Kit’s health begins to decline that the two realise how much they meant to each other and how not everything lasts forever.
Spoiler Alert sets the scene with some heavy handed dialogue and scenarios early on, with almost every gay cliche crammed into the establishing sequences.
The overly familiar meet-cute could have easily been lifted from a number of any other “straight” rom-coms in the past 30 years.
What at first seems like simple sexuality flip, soon becomes an affecting love story that will have even the toughest film goers shedding a tear or two.
This mainly comes down the two leads actors, Parsons and Aldridge, who, despite being in rom-com fantasy land, ground the story with their natural performances and chemisty.
Parsons proves to have the endearing qualities and charisma to carry a feature film with his relatable presence.
Alluding to how this is going to all end in the title means this is less about the ending and more about the journey to get there – but it doesn’t make the final moments any less emotionally devastating.
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