Imaginary Heroes

Matt is the best swimmer at school and his father raised him for it. One morning he kills himself. The family comes apart. The father stops talking and leaves his son's place at the table empty. The mother starts smoking in the house. The younger son Tim is left alone at school and nobody asks him anything. The neighbouring family is drawn in; there is a matter between the two households that has been hidden for years. A year passes. The family seems to be standing but nobody tells anybody the truth. Dan Harris writes and directs; it is his first feature. Sigourney Weaver plays the mother, Emile Hirsch plays Tim and Jeff Daniels the father; Michelle Williams is in the cast. It is an American production. The film screened at the 2004 Sundance Film Festival. The matter it treats is grief going unspoken; for a year the family avoids the same subject. The narrative does not explain the suicide and looks for no cause. The character Sigourney Weaver plays is the source of the humour; she carries the grief oddly. The narrative opens a family secret in the second half and that information rearranges the relations. The film settles into the shape of the crowded family drama and some of its lines are left half finished. The narrative stands between a youth film and a family drama. Its limit is structure; the narrative is scattered, the tone shifts, and the ending unresolved. Who it is for: viewers who like American independent family drama. Who it is not for: it is scattered, heavy, and the ending open.