It was the writer and film theorist Wheeler Winston Dixon who wrote harsh things about 1999s American Beauty, labelling it "relentlessly teen driven; a film in which Kevin Spacey smokes marijuana and regresses into his supposedly idyllic teenhood. Substance, depth and characterisation are ruthlessly stripped down in favour of instantly readable icons." To a degree; that's exactly what happens in Imaginary Heroes, a film in which Sigourney Weaver plays a mother called Sandy Travis a mother who smokes drugs after a tragedy strikes a typical suburban American family.
But this is a film where we do not spend enough time with the Travis family in question to know weather they were this dysfunctional before the tragic event that altered everyone's lives. The study in Imaginary Heroes is of loss and coming to grips with that loss. The son Tim (Hirsch) plays his role as if he is auditioning for Donnie Darko but does really well in getting across the whole 'alienated teen' characterisation. Along with this, the father and husband Ben (Daniels) shows the exact opposite mentality to that of his wife, Sandy, in the sense he is devastated and rather than take drugs in order to get reintroduced to his youth, he uses days at the park to try and kill off his sadness. I got the feeling Imaginary Heroes was supposed to be somewhat of a comedy, perhaps no coincidence that American Beauty was also a comedy but whilst I'm not saying I agree with Dixon, if Imaginary Heroes was trying to be funny I cannot see how someone can laugh at a film that includes students committing suicide, taking Ecstasy and self harming themselves.
I think the mere idea of Sigourney Weaver smoking drugs, getting high, hurling snowballs at the glass windows of abandoned buildings, getting arrested, taking down phone numbers of those younger than her and generally getting back into touch with her youth is enough to make anyone chuckle but this is where casting and ideas come into play. Firstly, I think we are supposed to laugh at Sigourney's antics; we are supposed to laugh at Tim's little misadventures and his little depressed teen one liners he springs out. I also see the filmmakers sort of telling us they realise this by making Jeff Daniels' character the most serious and as a result unfunny character of the film; odd how the one person in the cast who perhaps might just be the one to make us laugh is, not relegated, but placed in the position of one who will most definitely NOT make us laugh. Take 1994's Speed as an example; a serious and down to earth action film but one of which has Daniels crack the odd one-liner; we look to him for the comic relief after the life or death situations, and he delivers. However in this film, he is the most serious and as a result, best character on offer there is no funny jibe; there is no one-liner, just pure emotion and character study which borders on mental illness.
Like I said, the film is a study of loss and a study of how people deal with loss. In American Beauty, which is strikingly similar, Spacey's character is depressed and fed up with life and uses drugs as a means to escape it all. Although Imaginary Heroes attempts to relegate American Beauty because it gives its characters actual reason to do the things they do. American Beauty begins with a monologue of how fed up with everything Spacey actually is, a monologue that makes us laugh and perhaps associate with the character; Imaginary Heroes begins with a suicide boom, end of. And yet Imaginary Heroes goes on to have its protagonist lie on their lawn and look at the stars as they dance around; the next door neighbour has to use a hose to wake her up and then everything's alright again. Spacey's character and his descent through life is better and more interesting, with real reason to chuckle once or twice; by comparison, by the time we've seen Sandy get arrested some of us have probably forgotten all about the suicide at the beginning.
But while the film confuses its ideas in genre, it remains a great study of loss even if I would've liked to have seen more of Ben than I did of Sandy. Tim plays a teen who seems to be holding some black secrets but at the same time, we must see him progress through his own personal 'coming of age' hell of bullying and girls at his school. There is also room for the film to make a statement at the very end on America's gun culture and problems that arise with that; when a certain character pulls out a revolver near the very end, it feels as of we are supposed to have a sharp jolt happen to us, a reaction of some kind; but in the end it just confirms how unhappy that person was before the film's events had even started. The film may be a comedy, a tragedy and a study of human emotion but one thing it certainly isn't is uninteresting to read into.
But this is a film where we do not spend enough time with the Travis family in question to know weather they were this dysfunctional before the tragic event that altered everyone's lives. The study in Imaginary Heroes is of loss and coming to grips with that loss. The son Tim (Hirsch) plays his role as if he is auditioning for Donnie Darko but does really well in getting across the whole 'alienated teen' characterisation. Along with this, the father and husband Ben (Daniels) shows the exact opposite mentality to that of his wife, Sandy, in the sense he is devastated and rather than take drugs in order to get reintroduced to his youth, he uses days at the park to try and kill off his sadness. I got the feeling Imaginary Heroes was supposed to be somewhat of a comedy, perhaps no coincidence that American Beauty was also a comedy but whilst I'm not saying I agree with Dixon, if Imaginary Heroes was trying to be funny I cannot see how someone can laugh at a film that includes students committing suicide, taking Ecstasy and self harming themselves.
I think the mere idea of Sigourney Weaver smoking drugs, getting high, hurling snowballs at the glass windows of abandoned buildings, getting arrested, taking down phone numbers of those younger than her and generally getting back into touch with her youth is enough to make anyone chuckle but this is where casting and ideas come into play. Firstly, I think we are supposed to laugh at Sigourney's antics; we are supposed to laugh at Tim's little misadventures and his little depressed teen one liners he springs out. I also see the filmmakers sort of telling us they realise this by making Jeff Daniels' character the most serious and as a result unfunny character of the film; odd how the one person in the cast who perhaps might just be the one to make us laugh is, not relegated, but placed in the position of one who will most definitely NOT make us laugh. Take 1994's Speed as an example; a serious and down to earth action film but one of which has Daniels crack the odd one-liner; we look to him for the comic relief after the life or death situations, and he delivers. However in this film, he is the most serious and as a result, best character on offer there is no funny jibe; there is no one-liner, just pure emotion and character study which borders on mental illness.
Like I said, the film is a study of loss and a study of how people deal with loss. In American Beauty, which is strikingly similar, Spacey's character is depressed and fed up with life and uses drugs as a means to escape it all. Although Imaginary Heroes attempts to relegate American Beauty because it gives its characters actual reason to do the things they do. American Beauty begins with a monologue of how fed up with everything Spacey actually is, a monologue that makes us laugh and perhaps associate with the character; Imaginary Heroes begins with a suicide boom, end of. And yet Imaginary Heroes goes on to have its protagonist lie on their lawn and look at the stars as they dance around; the next door neighbour has to use a hose to wake her up and then everything's alright again. Spacey's character and his descent through life is better and more interesting, with real reason to chuckle once or twice; by comparison, by the time we've seen Sandy get arrested some of us have probably forgotten all about the suicide at the beginning.
But while the film confuses its ideas in genre, it remains a great study of loss even if I would've liked to have seen more of Ben than I did of Sandy. Tim plays a teen who seems to be holding some black secrets but at the same time, we must see him progress through his own personal 'coming of age' hell of bullying and girls at his school. There is also room for the film to make a statement at the very end on America's gun culture and problems that arise with that; when a certain character pulls out a revolver near the very end, it feels as of we are supposed to have a sharp jolt happen to us, a reaction of some kind; but in the end it just confirms how unhappy that person was before the film's events had even started. The film may be a comedy, a tragedy and a study of human emotion but one thing it certainly isn't is uninteresting to read into.