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Death of a Superhero: A Good Story, Well Told

By Ryan Mason · May 7, 2012

Death of a Superhero proves that you don’t need an original high-concept pitch to make a good movie. Much more important: solid characters and honest storytelling, both of which this Toronto Film Festival Official Selection has in spades.

Superhero tells the story of 15-year-old Donald (Thomas Sangster), a teenager with terminal cancer who takes out his anger and frustrations with his own mortality in the form of creating comic book stories, posing himself as the troubled hero (who just can’t seem to get laid despite women constantly throwing themselves at him) and death incarnate as his villain. After attempting suicide, Donald’s parents take him to numerous therapists, none of whom are able to connect with him. Until finally, they find Dr. Adrian King (Andy Serkis), a widower with a knack for getting Donald to finally open up.

While there’s nothing here that we haven’t seen before in terms of story, director Ian Fitzgibbon and screenwriter Anthony McCarten (who adapted from his own novel of the same name) incorporate Donald’s vivid artwork in a stylized way not typical for this type of movie, interweaving comic-book-style animated sequences with live-action as a way to visualize Donald’s fears, desire, and impulses. It makes the title a bit on the nose, yet it works. For a creative young adult, aware of all the things he knows he’ll miss out on experiencing – love, sex, college, driving – it’s perfectly reasonable that he’d personify his leukemia as an actual villain, seemingly impossible to defeat, just like those in his comic books. And since Donald’s own artistic talent ends up being shown as both a savior and a liability throughout the film, the filmmakers’ decision to directly include those drawings into the fabric of Superhero pulls the viewers into Donald’s world even more than had they just remained inanimate sketches in his notebook.

Aside from that inspired idea, Superhero is a relatively straightforward character drama, without any twists or turns. Perhaps that sounds like a criticism, but in fact, I say it as a compliment. Sometimes a good story well told, is all you need from a movie. (Honestly, all movies should at least provide this, even if in addition they also include explosions, gunfights, and time machines.) It shouldn’t be a foregone conclusion that Superhero would be as good as it is, either, since it certainly has all of the leftover ingredients you’d expect from a syrupy, lazy tearjerker that we’ve seen countless time: dying child, lonely therapist, teenaged love. Like you’d be expecting an even more maudlin Good Will Hunting, made all the more sentimental for the fact that not only is Donald troubled, but he’s dying on top of it. Yet Fitzgibbon never lets the film stray into that realm, aided by superb performances by Sangster (who you may recognize as the lovestruck son of Liam Neeson in Love Actually) and Serkis (who you’ve seen plenty of times yet never realized was him: King Kong and Gollum, most notably).

Perhaps the most important way that Superhero maintains its honest level of emotion is in showing more than telling. Too often this setup would mean numerous scenes of two people talking, the therapist trying to get the patient to open up, until finally at the end there’s a breakthrough. Thankfully, Fitzgibbon and McCarten thankfully keep the number of “therapist-patient” scenes to a minimum, but not before having the requisite “it’s not your fault” scene where King gets Donald to release his pent up anger by roaring like a lion until both of them end up laughing. But, luckily they know that this isn’t where the heart of the movie lies, instead focusing on Donald’s current obsession, which is what most teenage boys focus nearly all their attention on: girls. Namely, how thoroughly impossible it seems at the time to meet and be with one. Up until now, for Donald this has always been an abstract, something he brings to life in his hyper-sexualized drawings of shapely women with tails. That is until Shelly (Aisling Loftus) transfers to his school unexpectedly, capturing Donald’s eye – and who happens to find Donald equally as intriguing.

And when it comes to Donald’s illness, instead of multiple scenes with doctors telling his parents about how grave his condition is, the filmmakers simply give us just enough information through what we’re seeing – rather than what’s being said – to pick up the facts of the situation. It’s that confident filmmaking that entrusts the audience to participate, even if just a little bit, with the film rather than remaining mere spectators. That, along with excellent performances, and the gorgeous landscape of Ireland as the backdrop, make Death of a Superhero something that all movies should be, yet don’t always achieve: a good story, well told.