Imaginary Heroes

Last updated
Imaginary Heroes
Imaginary Heroes (poster).jpg
Original poster
Directed by Dan Harris
Written byDan Harris
Produced by Illana Diamant
Moshe Diamant
Frank Hübner
Art Linson
Gina Resnick
Denise Shaw
Starring Sigourney Weaver
Emile Hirsch
Jeff Daniels
Cinematography Tim Orr
Edited by James Lyons
Music by Deborah Lurie
Distributed by Sony Pictures Classics
Release date
  • December 17, 2004 (2004-12-17)
Running time
111 minutes [1]
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Box office$291,118 [2]

Imaginary Heroes is a 2004 American drama film written and directed by Dan Harris. The film focuses on the traumatic effect the suicide of the elder son has on a suburban family. For her performance in the film, Weaver was nominated for a Satellite Award for Best Actress in a Motion Picture, Drama.

Contents

Plot

Matt Travis is good-looking, popular, and his school's best competitive swimmer, so everyone is shocked when he inexplicably commits suicide. As the following year unfolds, each member of his family struggles to recover from the tragedy with mixed results.

His mother Sandy tries to keep the lines of communication open with younger son Tim while easing her emotional pain with marijuana. Father Ben, a perfectionist who worshipped Matt as much as he ignored Tim, insists on continuing to place a meal at the dinner table for the dead boy and begins to drink heavily. Eventually, without telling his wife, he takes a leave of absence from work and spends his days lost in reverie on a park bench. Tim, always in the shadows as the smaller, unathletic, less accomplished "other brother," struggles to get through school while trying to resist the recreational drugs his best friend Kyle Dwyer is always offering him and contemplating having sex with classmate Steph Connors. Sister Penny, away at college, dutifully comes home for infrequent visits and tries to help bridge the widening gap between her surviving brother and their parents.

With the passing months, new crises arise and a long-kept secret is revealed, until it is revealed that one family member was aware of Matt's inner turmoil and suicidal thoughts and why nothing was done to help him.

Cast

Production

Screenwriter/director Dan Harris was 22 years old when he sent the script to Bryan Singer, who hired him to work on the screenplays for X2 , Superman Returns , and the remake of Logan's Run . Two years later he left Singer to begin pre-production work on Heroes. [3] The film was shot on location in Chatham, Glen Ridge, Montclair, Newark, Wayne, and West Paterson, New Jersey.

Reception

Box office

Imaginary Heroes premiered at the Cannes Film Market in May 2004 and was shown at the Toronto International Film Festival, the Austin Film Festival, the Chicago International Film Festival, and the Marrakech International Film Festival before opening on two theaters in the United States on December 19, 2004. It earned $4,696 on its opening weekend; at its widest release, it played in only 24 theaters domestically. It eventually grossed $228,767 domestically and $62,351 internationally for a total of $291,118. [2]

Critical response

Imaginary Heroes has a "rotten" score of 35% on Rotten Tomatoes from 106 critic reviews, and an average rating of 5.2 out of 10. The consensus on the film states that it "is a muddled, melodramatic and unconvincing drama." [4] The film also has a score of 53 out of 100 on Metacritic, based on reviews of 32 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews". [5]

Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times observed, "The film might have been stronger as simply the story of the family trying to heal itself after its tragedy, with the focus on Sandy and Tim. But Harris feels a need to explain everything in terms of melodramatic revelations and surprise developments, right up until the closing scenes. The emotional power of the last act is weakened by the flood of new information. The key revelation right at the end explains a lot, yes, but it comes so late that all it can do is explain. If it had come earlier, it would have had to be dealt with, and those scenes might have been considerable... What remains when the movie is over is the memory of Sandy and Tim talking, and of a mother who loves her son, understands him, and understands herself in a wry but realistic way. The characters deserve a better movie, but they get a pretty good one." [3]

Mick LaSalle of the San Francisco Chronicle said the film "has a strong narrative spine, with interesting and big things happening throughout - an unexpected virtue in a family drama. But this virtue is obscured somewhat by the movie's lack of narrative drive. Writer Dan Harris has written himself a tidy little story, but in directing it, he hasn't sculpted a dynamic drama. To put it in another way, there's a lean, mean 82-minute drama encased in this flabby 112-minute film... What saves Imaginary Heroes is its essential truthfulness about families, which it reveals, not only in the broad movements of its story but in the small details... Sometimes the film's tone wobbles into farce, which is inappropriate, and often the story treads water, as though mimicking, in tone, every somber family film since Ordinary People . But, ultimately, it arrives at an authentic and surprisingly powerful place." [6]

Peter Travers of Rolling Stone rated the film two out of four stars and added, "Sigourney Weaver is a luminous actress with a tough core of intelligence and wit. And Emile Hirsch, who plays her guilt-tormented son, has the talent to sustain a major career. Their scenes together have a warmth that almost makes you forgive Imaginary Heroes... for trying so hard and so futilely to duplicate Ordinary People... What the movie damagingly lacks is a personality of its own." [7]

Awards

Weaver was nominated for a Satellite Award for Best Actress in a Motion Picture, Drama at the 9th Golden Satellite Awards for her performance. [8]

Home media

The film was released in anamorphic widescreen format on DVD on June 7, 2005. [9] It features an English audio track and subtitles in French. Bonus features include commentary with either Sigourney Weaver or Dan Harris and Emile Hirsch, deleted scenes, and a behind-the-scenes featurette and photo gallery.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sigourney Weaver</span> American actress and film producer (born 1949)

Susan Alexandra "Sigourney" Weaver is an American actress and film producer. Prolific in film since the late 1970s, she is known for her portrayals of strong women in science fiction and horror franchises, and for her roles in blockbusters. Weaver is considered to be a pioneer of action heroines in science fiction films. She is the recipient of numerous accolades, including a British Academy Film Award, two Golden Globe Awards, and a Grammy Award, in addition to nominations for three Academy Awards, four Primetime Emmy Awards, and a Tony Award.

<i>The Accused</i> (1988 film) 1988 film by Jonathan Kaplan

The Accused is a 1988 American legal drama film directed by Jonathan Kaplan and written by Tom Topor, loosely based on the 1983 gang rape of Cheryl Araujo in New Bedford, Massachusetts. The film stars Jodie Foster as Sarah Tobias, a young waitress who is gang raped by three men at a local bar. With the help of District Attorney Katheryn Murphy, she sets out to prosecute the rapists as well as the men who helped induce the assault. It also features performances from Bernie Coulson, Leo Rossi, Ann Hearn, Carmen Argenziano, Steve Antin, and Tom O'Brien. Principal photography began in Vancouver on April 27, 1987, and concluded on June 22.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Emile Hirsch</span> American actor

Emile Davenport Hirsch is an American actor. His portrayal of Chris McCandless in Into the Wild (2007) earned him widespread acclaim and multiple nominations. Other notable roles include The Girl Next Door (2004), Lords of Dogtown (2005), Alpha Dog (2006), Speed Racer (2008), Milk (2008), Lone Survivor (2013), The Autopsy of Jane Doe (2016), The Chinese Widow (2017), An Evening with Beverly Luff Linn (2018), and Once Upon a Time in Hollywood (2019).

<i>Snow Cake</i> 2006 film

Snow Cake is a 2006 independent romantic comedy drama film directed by Marc Evans and starring Alan Rickman, Sigourney Weaver, Carrie-Anne Moss, Emily Hampshire, and Callum Keith Rennie. It was released on 8 September 2006, in the United Kingdom.

<i>The TV Set</i> 2006 American film

The TV Set is a 2006 American comedy-drama film written and directed by Jake Kasdan and starring David Duchovny, Sigourney Weaver, Ioan Gruffudd, and Judy Greer. The film follows an idealistic writer attempting to bring his vision for a TV show to fruition on the small screen.

Dan Harris is an American screenwriter and director best known for working with Michael Dougherty and Bryan Singer, and whose writing credits include Superman Returns, X2 and X-Men: Apocalypse.

<i>Gorillas in the Mist</i> 1988 film by Michael Apted

Gorillas in the Mist is a 1988 American biographical drama film directed by Michael Apted from a screenplay by Anna Hamilton Phelan and a story by Phelan and Tab Murphy. The film is based on a book of the same name by Dian Fossey and the article by Harold T. P. Hayes. It stars Sigourney Weaver as naturalist Dian Fossey and Bryan Brown as photographer Bob Campbell. It tells the story of Fossey, who came to Africa to study the vanishing mountain gorillas, and later fought to protect them.

<i>The Ice Storm</i> (film) 1997 film by Ang Lee

The Ice Storm is a 1997 American drama film directed by Ang Lee, based on Rick Moody's 1994 novel. The film features an ensemble cast of Kevin Kline, Joan Allen, Tobey Maguire, Christina Ricci, Elijah Wood, Katie Holmes, Glenn Fitzgerald, Jamey Sheridan and Sigourney Weaver. Set during Thanksgiving 1973, The Ice Storm is about two dysfunctional New Canaan, Connecticut, upper-class families who are trying to deal with tumultuous social changes of the early 1970s, and their escapism through alcohol, adultery, and sexual experimentation.

<i>The Girl in the Park</i> 2007 American film

The Girl in the Park is a 2007 drama film, the first directed by David Auburn, screenwriter of Proof (2005) and The Lake House (2006). It stars Sigourney Weaver, Kate Bosworth and Keri Russell.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Illana Diamant</span>

Illana Diamant, better known as Illana Shoshan is an Israeli actress, producer, activist and beauty pageant titleholder who was crowned Miss Israel 1980 and represented her country at Miss Universe 1980.

<i>Prayers for Bobby</i> 2009 television film directed by Russell Mulcahy

Prayers for Bobby is a televised drama film that premiered on the Lifetime network on January 24, 2009. The film is based on the book of the same name by Leroy F. Aarons, which is itself based on the true story of the life and legacy of Bobby Griffith, a gay young man who killed himself in 1983 due to his mother's homophobia. Ryan Kelley stars as Bobby Griffith and Sigourney Weaver portrays his mother Mary.

<i>A Map of the World</i> (film) 1999 American drama film

A Map of the World is a 1999 American drama film, based on the 1994 novel of the same name by Jane Hamilton. Directed by Scott Elliott and produced by Kathleen Kennedy and Frank Marshall, the film stars Sigourney Weaver, Julianne Moore and David Strathairn. Weaver was nominated for a Golden Globe Award for Best Actress in a Motion Picture Drama for her performance.

<i>Political Animals</i> (miniseries) US comedy drama miniseries

Political Animals is a six-episode American comedy drama miniseries created by Greg Berlanti. The series aired in the United States on USA Network from July 15 through August 19, 2012. Sigourney Weaver portrays Elaine Barrish, a divorced former First Lady and Governor of Illinois, as well as the current Secretary of State. Weaver and the show's production team acknowledge that the lead character has some similarities to Hillary Clinton. They say that the premise of the show is "very much about all families who have been in the White House, the price they've paid for being there and the fact that those same families will often try or continue to try to get back into the White House again."

<i>Prince Avalanche</i> 2013 American film

Prince Avalanche is a 2013 American comedy-drama film written and directed by David Gordon Green and starring Paul Rudd and Emile Hirsch. The screenplay is based on the 2011 Icelandic film Either Way. The film was shot in Bastrop, Texas, after the Bastrop County Complex Fire.

<i>Twice Born</i> 2012 film by Sergio Castellitto

Twice Born is a 2012 drama film directed by Sergio Castellitto, which stars Penélope Cruz and Emile Hirsch. It is based on the novel Venuto al mondo by Margaret Mazzantini which won the Premio Campiello literary prize in 2009. Castellitto also co-wrote the screenplay.

<i>My Salinger Year</i> 2020 film directed by Philippe Falardeau

My Salinger Year is a 2020 drama film written and directed by Philippe Falardeau, based upon the memoir of the same name by Joanna Rakoff. It stars Margaret Qualley, Sigourney Weaver, Douglas Booth, Seána Kerslake, Colm Feore and Brían F. O'Byrne.

<i>The Good House</i> (film) 2021 American film

The Good House is a 2021 American comedy-drama film directed by Maya Forbes and Wally Wolodarsky, who wrote the screenplay with Thomas Bezucha. It is based on the novel of the same name by Ann Leary.

<i>Call Jane</i> 2022 American film

Call Jane is a 2022 American drama film starring Elizabeth Banks as a suburban housewife in the 1960s who deals with a life-threatening pregnancy and subsequently joins the Jane Collective, an underground network of abortion activists. The film also stars Sigourney Weaver, Chris Messina, Kate Mara, Wunmi Mosaku, Cory Michael Smith, Grace Edwards, and John Magaro. It is directed by Phyllis Nagy. The screenplay was written by Hayley Schore and Roshan Sethi.

<i>Master Gardener</i> (film) 2022 American film directed by Paul Schrader

Master Gardener is a 2022 American crime thriller film written and directed by Paul Schrader and starring Joel Edgerton, Sigourney Weaver, and Quintessa Swindell. The film premiered out of competition at the 79th Venice International Film Festival on September 3, 2022, and was released in the United States by Magnolia Pictures on May 19, 2023.

References

  1. ↑ "Imaginary Heroes". eyeforfilm.co.uk. 31 May 2006. Retrieved August 9, 2022.
  2. 1 2 "Imaginary Heroes". Box Office Mojo .
  3. 1 2 Ebert, Roger (February 25, 2005). "Imaginary Heroes review". Chicago Sun-Times. Archived from the original on September 10, 2012. Retrieved February 12, 2022.
  4. ↑ "Imaginary Heroes". Rotten Tomatoes.
  5. ↑ "Imaginary Heroes". Metacritic.
  6. ↑ LaSalle, Mick (February 25, 2005). "Details etch a portrait of family grief over suicide". San Francisco Chronicle.
  7. ↑ Travers, Peter (January 27, 2005). "Imaginary Heroes : Review". Rolling Stone. Archived from the original on November 5, 2007.
  8. ↑ "International Press Academy: Satellite Awards". International Press Academy. Archived from the original on 2009-12-21. Retrieved 2024-03-16.
  9. ↑ "Imaginary Heroes (DVD)". Amazon. 7 June 2005. Retrieved October 13, 2022.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.