BEFORE: Robin Williams carries over from "House of D" and if you've followed my thought process on linking films for any length of time, it's probably very easy to figure out what tomorrow's film is going to be. I set my goal, to line up the right film for Father's Day, and it's going to pay off. Next goal, get to the right film for July 4. And then once I get to the end of July with the Summer Rock Doc Concert series, all I'll need to do is connect to the horror chain, then wrap up the year somehow in November or December. I think we can all agree, the sooner we get to November and the end of this miserable year, the better, right? Part of me wishes I could just sleep all day or put myself in some stasis pod and wake up in time for Thanksgiving - I'll ask first about the election, sure, hoping that my lack of voting wasn't the one thing that caused a calamity, and then go right on to enjoy the holidays. If only...
THE PLOT: When his son's body is found in a humiliating accident, a lonely high school teacher inadvertently attracts an overwhelming amount of community and media attention after covering up the truth with a phony suicide note.
AFTER: Ugh, like many other films, this one opens with a writer trying to write, while telling the audience that he's not really much of a writer, or at least it seems that way because nobody will publish his books. (So, is he a writer or not? Discuss...). I guess anybody can be a writer, then, but the real trick is becoming a PUBLISHED writer, and that's the nut he has yet to crack. Well, at least Lance, the writer character here, is not just staring at a blank page in this one, or a blank computer screen - that's always the last resort of a stuck screenwriter. Write what you know, they say, and if you don't know what to write about, just write about somebody else who doesn't know what to write about. I'm sick of that, can we get all screenwriters to stop doing that, please?
At least this film GOES somewhere after that, even if it goes to a dark place, at least that's somewhere. Oh, umm, SPOILER ALERT if you haven't seen "World's Greatest Dad", because it's just impossible to talk about this film without mentioning the specific dark events that take place in the film. And if you're wondering why you've never seen this film on cable or promoted, well, anywhere, it has a lot to do with those dark places. And the fact that Robin Williams died five years later in a method that may (or may not) echo some of the events in this film. I don't think this film is blacklisted or anything, it's readily available on iTunes and YouTube if you've got $2.99 or $3.99, but on the other hand, I don't see many cable channels rushing to air it.
I got sort of a "Heathers" vibe off of this one, in that film from the 1980's after kids died in a high-school they were eulogized as if they were better people than they were, or at least differently. One father in that film mistakenly thought his jock son was gay and came around to something akin to acceptance after the fact. Here they really went out of their way to make Kyle, Lance's son, a complete asshole, so I guess we wouldn't miss him so much later in the film. To him, everything that he doesn't like is either "gay" or "retarded", so it seems he never got the memo from the P.C. police to not use those words that way. He's also disparaging toward women, to really drive the point home. We never really learn WHY this kid is so angry and hates everything, including his own father, because I guess if there was a reason for it, then that would be something like an excuse.
Lance changes some key details about his son's death, and also writes his suicide note for him - sort of forgetting that his son wasn't really much of a writer. You might think that this little fact would eventually throw some suspicion on the later finding of Kyle's journal, another thing that Lance ghost-wrote. But here Lance sort of does the wrong thing for the right reasons, and it also has the added benefit of bringing him everything that he ever wanted. His son is suddenly regarded as a tortured genius, the students suddenly want to know everything about him, and dedicate the yearbook and school library to his memory. Plus Lance gets back on good terms with his girlfriend, and keeps her away from the younger, handsomer other English teacher (played by Henry Simmons, who's been so excellent lately on the final season of "Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.").
Kyle's journal gets published, Lance appears on a talk show and becomes the poster-child for suicide prevention, and comes close to earning the respect of everyone as "World's Greatest Dad". But, if the film ended there, would you be happy with that, him gaining success and happiness based on a lie? It's a valid question - what's more important, the ending of a character's arc or the method by which he got there? I think it was the right move to have him self-sabotage, because it seems to be in line with his character, as if this guy's been doing that to himself for a very long time. It kind of feels odd when burning down everything that's been accomplished (metaphorically speaking, that is) is also the right thing to do. The truth will set him free, but it's also going to piss a lot of people off - I have to admit that's a bit of a clever scenario. There may be a lot of elements here that are very problematic, but I don't think the resolution is one of them.
Also starring Alexie Gilmore (last seen in "Definitely, Maybe"), Daryl Sabara (last heard in "A Christmas Carol" (2009)), Evan Martin, Geoff Pierson (last seen in "Rules Don't Apply"), Henry Simmons, Mitzi McCall (last seen in "You're Never Too Young"), Jermaine Williams (last seen in "The Comebacks"), Lorraine Nicholson, Morgan Murphy (last seen in "It's Kind of a Funny Story"), Tony V. (last seen in "Daddy's Home 2"), Toby Huss (last seen in "The Front Runner"), Tom Kenny (last heard in "Teen Titans GO! to the Movies"), Jill Talley (last seen in "Comic Book: The Movie"), Naomi Glick, Zach Sanchez-Vitale, with cameos from Bruce Hornsby (last seen in "The Other One: The Long, Strange Trip of Bob Weir"), Krist Novoselic (last seen in "Hype!"), Bobcat Goldthwait (last seen in "Robin Williams: Come Inside My Mind").
RATING: 5 out of 10 zombie movies
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