It’s not easy making a film about a cancer patient that is much more than just a dour exercise in how unfair the disease can be. Spoiler Alert uses a fair number of cinematic tricks and fully developed characters to deliver an effective and affecting work.
The film is based on the memoir, Spoiler Alert: The Hero Dies by Television Journalist Michael Ausiello. It chronicles his 13-year relationship with photographer Kit Cowan. It follows their meeting, falling in love and Kit’s eventual death in 2015 from a rare form of cancer.
Their partnership is presented as far from perfect and realistically portrays two souls that come together but struggle to fully unite. The serious subject matter is softened by the injection of scenes from an imaginary sitcom of the early life of Ausiello. There are also some liberties taken with timelines and cutaways.
By the film’s end, the times that Kit and Michael spent apart while they struggled to hold their relationship together seem particularly wasteful. Heart-wrenchingly sad yet still life-reaffirming, Spoiler Alert leaves you with the idea to get the most out of every day you have on this earth with those you love.
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