Spoiler Alert

Grade: B

Spoiler Alert is one of those stories where we already know the destination – we’re told that up front – so what we have left to discover and appreciate is the journey. Based on the book Spoiler Alert: The Hero Dies by Michael Ausiello, the movie takes us through his 13 year relationship with partner Kit Cowan: the courtship, ups, downs, meeting the parents, eventual marriage, up to Kit’s cancer and – do I really have to use the phrase? – death.

Ausiello has worked as a TV reporter for publications such as TV Guide, Entertainment Weekly, and TV Line. He is played by Jim Parsons, who had a life-changing 13 year ride of his own as Sheldon on The Big Bang Theory. I never watched that show, so I know him from Wish I Was Here, Home, and especially Hidden Figures, as a villain I loved to hate. In Spoiler Alert, he brings a sweetness and vulnerability to the table, and shows that he can be a star and carry a film.

Kit is played by British actor Ben Aldridge, who is funny, charming, nice to look at, and works well with Parsons. Sporadically throughout the movie, we see clips of Ausiello’s childhood imagined as a sitcom. Remember the sitcom-within-the-movie in Natural Born Killers, with Rodney Dangerfield as the father? This is what it made me think of, though it doesn’t go nearly that far.

Kit’s mother is played by Sally Field – nice to see her again. What a treasure she is. She and Bill Irwin are great together as loving, supportive, quirky parents. When the four main characters get together, they sometimes have what I call TV show arguments. They’re usually not all that funny – mainly just 4 people yelling over each other about good-natured things. “Can you believe how much parking costs at hospitals these days?” “Oh, put a pin in it, Bob.” “Guys, I’m hungry!” Thankfully, it doesn’t happen enough to be insufferable.

Spoiler Alert is a funny, touching dramedy that could have had a slightly better distribution of funny stuff (front-loaded at the beginning) and the sad stuff (jam-packed at the end). The conclusion is foretold, but it’s a journey worth taking. They say that the dates on a grave stone don’t matter as much as what happened in the dash between them.

Grade: B