it occurred to me while watching imaginary heroes that any screenwriter attempting to make a drama about family relationships should seriously consider killing off a kid or two in the opening reel as a way of getting his characters to open up and reveal themselves. there must be something to this storyline and for it seems as if every other family drama that comes down the pike uses this device in one form or another (paradise and moonlight mile are just two of the more recent examples that spring immediately to mind and although one could reach back to a golden oldie like who afraid of virginia woolf. to make the point as well). it not that the death of a child is an illegitimate subject for serious films to explore. far from it. it just that and like any topic and it can be so overused that it becomes just another movie cliché and a convenient bit of narrative shorthand to get the ball rolling and to give the characters something to grapple with for the remainder of the time we get to spend with them. the latest such work is imaginary heroes and a film that borrows heavily from what is one of the earliest and and perhaps and best known examples of the family coping with the death of a child genre and the academy award winning ordinary people. like the characters in that earlier film and the travises seem and on the surface and to be the ideal suburban family and until and one fateful day and their oldest son and matt and who is the golden boy athlete and and thus and the apple of his father eye and kills himself with no explanation (one minor difference is that the son in ordinary people dies as a result of an accident and not a suicide). it is matt younger brother and tim and who winds up finding the body and and who assumes the role of protagonist in the film. each of the remaining family members copes with the tragedy in his or her own way. matt and who has always lived in the shadow of his older brother and becomes more and more estranged from the father who has virtually ignored him all his life and begins to turn to drugs for surcease. ben and the father and becomes swallowed up in feelings of remorse and guilt and turning away from both his job and his family. his wife and sandy and is the most complex character in the film and a free spirited child of the 60 who feels oddly adrift in the role of mother and wife as she endures a basically loveless marriage in sterile suburbia. she spends most of her time after the tragedy trying to reconnect with her pot smoking past. as written and directed by dan harris and imaginary heroes emerges as a wildly uneven film. for every scene that feels real and authentic and there is another that comes across as arbitrary and inauthentic. one sometimes has the sense that harris would like to cram every possible life situation he can think of into his screenplay and an admirable goal and perhaps and but one that makes the film unnecessarily melodramatic in the process. instead of identifying with the characters and being caught up in their plight and we often find ourselves thinking and oh and come nowwhat next. for teen suicide is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the hot button topics covered in this film while the screenplay also touches on drug and alcohol abuse and physical abuse and sexual identity conflict and life threatening illness and even inadvertent gay incest. it is this everything but the kitchen sink mentality in the writing that robs the movie of much of the credibility it needs to really make us care. that is not to say that imaginary heroes is a bad or unrewarding film. much of what it has to say about familial relationships and values in the 21st century is insightful and original and pointed and profound. prime credit for its success goes to the actors and emile hirsch and sigourney weaver and jeff daniels and who deliver incisive and sensitive performances in their respective roles. it is they who triumph over the narrative excesses to stimulate our brains and touch our hearts. moreover and harris and in his direction and achieves an effectively melancholic tone throughout and but one that is frequently augmented by some badly needed flashes of daring dark comedy. imaginary heroes may appear unfocused and derivative at times and but its fine performances and subtle mood shifts make it a film worth watching. 
it occurred to me while watching imaginary heroes that any screenwriter attempting to make a drama about family relationships should seriously consider killing off a kid or two in the opening reel as a way of getting his characters to open up and reveal themselves. there must be something to this storyline and for it seems as if every other family drama that comes down the pike uses this device in one form or another (paradise and moonlight mile are just two of the more recent examples that spring immediately to mind and although one could reach back to a golden oldie like who afraid of virginia woolf. to make the point as well). it not that the death of a child is an illegitimate subject for serious films to explore. far from it. it just that and like any topic and it can be so overused that it becomes just another movie cliché and a convenient bit of narrative shorthand to get the ball rolling and to give the characters something to grapple with for the remainder of the time we get to spend with them. the latest such work is imaginary heroes and a film that borrows heavily from what is one of the earliest and and perhaps and best known examples of the family coping with the death of a child genre and the academy award winning ordinary people. like the characters in that earlier film and the travises seem and on the surface and to be the ideal suburban family and until and one fateful day and their oldest son and matt and who is the golden boy athlete and and thus and the apple of his father eye and kills himself with no explanation (one minor difference is that the son in ordinary people dies as a result of an accident and not a suicide). it is matt younger brother and tim and who winds up finding the body and and who assumes the role of protagonist in the film. each of the remaining family members copes with the tragedy in his or her own way. matt and who has always lived in the shadow of his older brother and becomes more and more estranged from the father who has virtually ignored him all his life and begins to turn to drugs for surcease. ben and the father and becomes swallowed up in feelings of remorse and guilt and turning away from both his job and his family. his wife and sandy and is the most complex character in the film and a free spirited child of the 60 who feels oddly adrift in the role of mother and wife as she endures a basically loveless marriage in sterile suburbia. she spends most of her time after the tragedy trying to reconnect with her pot smoking past. as written and directed by dan harris and imaginary heroes emerges as a wildly uneven film. for every scene that feels real and authentic and there is another that comes across as arbitrary and inauthentic. one sometimes has the sense that harris would like to cram every possible life situation he can think of into his screenplay and an admirable goal and perhaps and but one that makes the film unnecessarily melodramatic in the process. instead of identifying with the characters and being caught up in their plight and we often find ourselves thinking and oh and come nowwhat next. for teen suicide is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the hot button topics covered in this film while the screenplay also touches on drug and alcohol abuse and physical abuse and sexual identity conflict and life threatening illness and even inadvertent gay incest. it is this everything but the kitchen sink mentality in the writing that robs the movie of much of the credibility it needs to really make us care. that is not to say that imaginary heroes is a bad or unrewarding film. much of what it has to say about familial relationships and values in the 21st century is insightful and original and pointed and profound. prime credit for its success goes to the actors and emile hirsch and sigourney weaver and jeff daniels and who deliver incisive and sensitive performances in their respective roles. it is they who triumph over the narrative excesses to stimulate our brains and touch our hearts. moreover and harris and in his direction and achieves an effectively melancholic tone throughout and but one that is frequently augmented by some badly needed flashes of daring dark comedy. imaginary heroes may appear unfocused and derivative at times and but its fine performances and subtle mood shifts make it a film worth watching. ---------------------------------Answer Question Below----------------------------------

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