Director Michael Showalter finds it difficult to manage the tonal requirements of romantic-comedy tearsjerker. “Spoiler Alert,” an awkward and uncertain adaptation of TV critic Michael Ausiello’s memoir, which deals with the illness of Ausiello’s longterm partner Kit Cowan.
Many of the scenes here seem to have been shot in a spirit of tense desperation; the comedy doesn’t land, the romance takes too long to get going, and the tearjerking scenes are spoiled by a meta framework that makes Showalter’s job even more difficult.
“Spoiler Alert” It all begins with Ausiello (Jim Parsons), who embraces a very sick Cowan, (Ben Aldridge). “Pennyworth”() In a hospital bed and it leads to flashbacks to the first time they met 14 years ago. Ausiello is at TV Guide where he writes more. “Fear Factor” Instead of “Gilmore Girls,” We then see him at a nightclub where Cowan is present.
The third is “Spoiler Alert” The chemistry between Parsons and the lead actor is what makes the scene so uncomfortable. There seems to be nothing but discomfort and squirming between them. In the scenes where they kiss, Parsons’s character is supposed to be feeling awkward because of his own personal issues, but this just reads as awkwardness between the actors, as though they had never been introduced and were made to plunge into a big love scene right away.
As “Spoiler Alert” The real drama is in the fact that Aldridge continually tries to make contact with Parsons to establish a romantic relationship between them as actors, while Parsons continues to avoid it from a physical or emotional standpoint. Aldridge will look at Parsons with convincingly growing love in close-up, and then Parsons will stare back as if he isn’t actually looking at his leading man but at someone or something else.
The introduction of Sally Field and Bill Irwin as Cowan’s parents is very welcome because they immediately bring a sense of life and believable behavior to their scenes, even doing some overlapping dialogue, and this comes as a relief because so much of “Spoiler Alert” before their entrance has a purgatorial look where even the background actors don’t seem to be moving or living any kind of life at the clubs or restaurants the characters frequent.
“Spoiler Alert” was co-written by actor David Marshall Grant and venerable sex advice columnist Dan Savage, and there are a few moments where it feels like Savage has tried to inject a bit of sexual reality into the portrayal of the main relationship between Ausiello and Cowan, which flounders briefly because their sex life is inhibited by Ausiello’s issues with his body.
Cowan will be diagnosed with the fatal illness once Cowan has been admitted to hospital. “Spoiler Alert” While briefly the scene transitions to dramatic scenes, it maintains a serious tone. “Give my husband the bed!” Ausiello’s tears echo Shirley MacLaine’s incensed, romantic-comedy melancholy. “Terms of Endearment,” Ausiello humorously refers right after his meltdown.
The scene towards the end is shown. “Spoiler Alert” Even though things seem very dire, Ausiello and Cowan make a lot of fun of it. It is possible to see how successful this kind of reverse of expectations could be if Showalter had found a more natural balance and got Parsons to feel connected to Aldridge on a deeper level as an actor.
When Field’s Marilyn is told about her son’s illness, her calm and very tough reaction flies against our expectation of some “big scene” breakdown for Field, who was so memorably enraged and frightened on Broadway with Irwin in Edward Albee’s “The Goat, or Who Is Sylvia?” Known for his dramatic as well comic scenes of breakdown, This is the obvious conclusion “Spoiler Alert” The reason it comes to an end is because although the material had the potential for a hard and humorous romance, its execution was so poor that the best moments were lost.
“Spoiler Alert” Focus Features will open in selected U.S. theatres on Dec. 2, and nationally Dec. 9, via Focus Features.