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Imaginary Heroes (2005)
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Movie Review by Elizabeth 
February 24th, 2005
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Add this to your list of "messed up in the suburbs" movies. In IMAGINARY HEROES, the Travis family is reeling from the suicide of teenage Matt, a champion swimmer who hated to swim. Father Ben (Daniels) turns into a flat-out bastard, mother Sandy (Weaver) tries holding them together, moody son Tim (Hirsch) takes every illegal substance he can find, and college student daughter Penny (Williams) visits a few times. Matt's own character and some family secrets barely contained under the surface of their middle class comforts are revealed, secrets that will probably not surprise you.
Viewers who enjoyed AMERICAN BEAUTY will see similarities here, even down to some through-the-windows camera shots from one neighbor's house to the next, but the visual flourish and fine eye to characterization present in that film are sorely absent here. You are told almost everything you'll get to know about a character immediately. Ben is a jerk, and you know this because he's barking swimming commands at Matt from the side of a pool in the first seconds he's on screen. Tim is moody and disaffected – check out the hair that hangs in his eyes and the journal he's always writing in! Freaky. Sandy is an odd combination of sarcasm and sadness, seemingly unaffected by her son's death and overly concerned with a petty rivalry with her neighbor. The characterizations are broad, while the scope of action and detail is narrow. And in an inexplicable side note, camp singing duo Kiki and Herb randomly show up for a Christmas sing-along.
Where is it written that the middle- aged must smoke pot when they're met with a crisis? It is no shock at all when Sandy finds her son's stash and lights up in the backyard, but her shopping trip to prepare is funny. However, this rite of passage for adults in crisis movies has become commonplace and boring. The dumbest recent example is from the Mandy Moore vehicle HOW TO DEAL, which admittedly I never saw, and that was largely because at the end of the trailer her stoned grandmother crowed "I have the munchies!" Please. My grandmother smoked pot, but only after her back surgery.
As the year following Matt's death passes, the family predictably splinters and breaks down, each indulging in their own choices of self-destructive behavior that grow increasingly unbelievable and trite. A family suicide is tragic enough; this film commits its own kind of self-harm by not allowing that event to speak for itself.
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