REVIEW: Spoiler Alert [2022]

January 5, 2023

2–3 minutes

Focus Features, Michael Showalter, Spoiler Alert

Rating: PG-13 | Runtime: 112 minutes
Release Date: December 2nd, 2022 (USA)
Studio: Focus Features
Director(s): Michael Showalter
Writer(s): David Marshall Grant & Dan Savage / Michael Ausiello (book Spoiler Alert: The Hero Dies)

Yes, de-gay my apartment.

It’s all in the title. Literally in the case of Michael Ausiello’s memoir’s subtitle. Figuratively in the case of Michael Showalter’s film (adapted by David Marshall Grant and Dan Savage). Because there’s no reason to call something Spoiler Alert unless you’re giving away the game.

Everyone involved knows this, so they don’t try to hide anything when opening things up to find Michael (Jim Parsons) lying face-to-face opposite his dying husband Kit (Ben Aldridge) in the latter’s hospital bed. There’s purpose in it too since knowing allows us to absorb rather than anticipate. We aren’t here to wonder whether they’ll escape with more time. We’re simply here to witness what they did with the time they had.

The ride is fun—especially at the start. Parsons and Aldridge are sweetly awkward and charming during their courtship with plenty of situational and conversational laughs culminating in an unforgettable apartment reveal (try and make sure that’s one spoiler you do avoid). These men are veritable opposites who find bliss when together even if things get a bit shaky leading up to the diagnosis.

Because no matter what was going on to pull them apart (careers, frustrations, etc.), they still loved each other on a level beyond mere attraction. It’s why Kit knew he didn’t want Michael to have to watch another loved one die of cancer. And why Michael was never not going to be by his side.

Beyond a TV-sitcom construct that Michael retreats into when things get hard, the film is pretty straightforward and honestly quite similar in scope and emotions to Showalter’s The Big Sick. Some of the personality that one had due to its subjects being the screenwriters (and star) does get lost here, but not enough to sour the experience.

If anything it just renders some scenes bland—both because they’re familiar and because there are enough jolts of comedy (see Shunori Ramanathan’s entrance as Oncologist #3) and intrigue (the deathbed scenes gets an unexpectedly jarring diversion) to make you wonder why there weren’t more. In the end it’s an effective tearjerker with solid and stable marks across the board (extra points for the supporting cast thanks to Sally Field and Bill Irwin stealing scenes as Kit’s parents).