Saturday, January 20, 2007

 

Imaginary Heroes

Imaginary Heroes I adore "Imaginary Heroes," a dark but funny film about a dysfunctional suburban family.

Tim (Emile Hirsch ) is a high school senior with a distant father (Jeff Daniels) whom he almost never speaks to and an eccentric mother (Sigourney Weaver) who can brings up masturbation with Tim without laughing. Tim also has a swimmer brother and a sister who goes to college. A tragic event at home challenges each of them to deal with the past, the reality, and each other. Perhaps, the future as well, if they have one.

"Imaginary Heroes" is written/directed by the talented Dan Harris, who was only 25 years old when the film was released. I absolutely love his terrific writing. No wonder he was hired to write the screenplay for "Superman Returns." The dialogue is sharp, witty, funny, and sometimes, makes one cry. Like this one:

Tim's sister: "Is there such a thing as the human heart, now there's the better question."
Tim: "Well, if you listen closely, you can hear it breaking."

The performance is simply superb. Sigourney Weaver should have given at least an Oscar nomination for portraiting this incredibly hippy, complex, compelling, and original character as Tim's mother. None of the characters in this film is happy and lovable. But I grow to care about them and feel their pain inside, and even sympathize their struggle. Yet, at the same time I laugh out loud throughout. The film provides many comic moments and lines that makes me laugh when I feel I shouldn't be laughing.

This is a great film and I am looking forward to other new films from Dan Harris.

My rating: 9 out of 10.


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