“Imaginary Heroes” is occasionally so sharp and funny that the rest of the movie is a disappointment. You get glimpses of what might have been if this one had a more original story line and setting.
The movie’s familiarity occasionally amounts to out-and-out borrowings from past domestic dramas, most obviously “American Beauty,” “Ordinary People,” and “The Ice Storm,” with which it shares Sigourney Weaver.
The mood of the suburban Travis household is summed up in an early exchange between son and mother. 17-year-old Tim (Emile Hirsch) declares, “People are so stupid I can’t bear to live around them anymore.” To which Mom (Weaver) replies, “They only get worse.”
The Travis family has three kids: a daughter (Michelle Williams) off at college, a shining-star older son (Kip Pardue) who is destined for the Olympics in swimming (if only he actually liked swimming), and the morose, confused Tim. The father (Jeff Daniels) is remote and sarcastic, and has spent much of his energy pushing the older son into athletic excellence.
Family tragedy rocks the already-unhappy situation, and we follow Tim as he tries to navigate his way through the miasma.
Not all of this is heavy going. Sigourney Weaver, in particular, does nicely with scenes in which the mother tries to shake off the dust. In one keenly turned sequence she goes to a head shop, tries to buy some pot, and is quickly arrested by an undercover cop. The punch line to the scene is a terrific comic touch.
Writer-director Dan Harris is less good with the father, and Jeff Daniels (who just played a warm daddy in “Because of Winn-Dixie”) isn’t the right casting. Emile Hirsch, who’s specializing in these coming-of-age narrator roles (“The Dangerous Lives of Altar Boys,” “The Mudge Boy”), again does well at maintaining an intelligent low key.
The movie has some skeletons that keep rattling at the closet door until the last couple of reels. This doesn’t work especially well. Harris scripted “X2” and the upcoming “Superman” opus, and you’d think a savvy screenwriter would know that the audience was well ahead of him on some of this stuff.
Maybe the coming-of-age story is one that young writers always have to tell. “Imaginary Heroes” has too many strands from other such efforts, but Harris seems like a talent, and let’s see what happens now that this is out of the way.
“Imaginary Heroes” HH
Deja vu: Some nice touches and performances in this family drama; Emile Hirsch and Sigourney Weaver are especially good. The coming-of-age story is just a little too familiar (traces of “The Ice Storm” and “Ordinary People” are too clear) for it to really find its own place, however.
Rated: R rating is for language, subject matter.
Now showing: tk
“Imaginary Heroes” HH
Deja vu: Some nice touches and performances in this family drama; Emile Hirsch and Sigourney Weaver are especially good. The coming-of-age story is just a little too familiar (traces of “The Ice Storm” and “Ordinary People” are too clear) for it to really find its own place, however.
Rated: R rating is for language, subject matter.
Now showing: Metro
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