Michael Showalter impresses again with 'Spoiler Alert' | Movie review

Dec. 5—For director Michael Showalter, it turns out "The Big Sick" wasn't "The BIG Sick."

Having helmed that terrific 2017 romantic comedy-drama — starring Kumail Nanjiani and based on the experience Nanjiani had with the woman who later would become his wife, Emily V. Gordon, who became ill when the two first were dating — Showalter now brings us a story of love and cancer, "Spoiler Alert."

Already out in some markets and hitting Northeast Ohio theaters this week, the film is based on "Spoiler Alert: The Hero Dies," TV journalist Michael Ausiello's memoir about the man he loved and lost, Kit Cowan.

With a deft touch, Showalter infuses what ultimately is a heartbreaking story with life and laughs. And while we take issue with a punch pulled here or there, we understand the apparent desire of a man whose background is in sketch comedy — Showalter first became known as a cast member of MTV's "The State" — to avoid wallowing in the ugliest aspects of a cancer battle.

Cowan died from rectal cancer in 2015, and the film begins with Michael (Jim Parsons) lying next to Kit (Ben Aldridge) in the latter's hospital bed, so, as the title of Ausiello's book suggests, we know how this story will climax.

We soon travel back in time, to Michael working at TV Guide, pitching a feature on "Gilmore Girls" but instead being assigned a piece on "Fear Factor." Dedicated to his work, he is prodded by a coworker to abandon it for a while and hit a club with him.

Looking uncomfortable in a blazer and New York Yankees cap, Michael exchanges smiles with handsome stranger Kit. And while the latter actually was looking past him, to his friend at the bar, they two begin to chat. Eventually, there is dancing, followed by kissing.

Then there's a great first date, after which Micheal clearly doesn't want to take Kit back to his place for a reason that soon enough will be revealed. (The trailer gives it away, but we won't. It's pretty fun.)

Despite some obvious differences — for starters, Michael is obsessed with television while photographer Kit doesn't even own one — and personal issues (body and commitment, respectively), they become a couple.

If Michael cares about anything as much as he does TV, it's Christmas, and Showalter quickly shows the passage of time through an annual Christmas portrait of the couple, landing us in a present that is more complicated.

The issues they have as a pair become dwarfed by what is causing Kit great physical pain. Visits to a couple of optimistic oncologists are followed by one to a woman Michael thinks looks right out of central casting, but this doctor has a much grimmer outlook for Kit. Unfortunately, her prognosis is the correct one.

Thanks in part to the performances by Parsons — best known for portraying Sheldon on "The Big Bang Theory" but whose credits also include solid Netflix projects "The Boys in the Band" and "Hollywood" — gives a nuanced performance as Michael, who's confident professionally but lives in fear of losing his better-looking partner to another man. And in the hands of Aldridge ("Pennyworth"), Kit is instantly and consistently likable — even when maybe he shouldn't be. They share a nice chemistry in good times for their characters and in darker moments, such as a post-diagnosis lunch when they take snapshots of each other's faces.

"Spoiler Alert" also benefits from nice supporting work from the veteran actors who portray Kit's supportive parents, Marilyn and Bob (Sally Field and Bill Irwin).

A memorable scene has Kit finally coming out to his parents after a pre-cancer medical event, the older couple growing increasingly curious as to why this friend of Kit's is at the hospital and knows where the linens are kept in his apartment.

For this reason, it's disappointing when Showalter cuts away from the dinner in which Kit, flanked by Michael, tells his folks about his diagnosis, the camera trading a spot around the dinner table for one outside a window looking in on a conversation we no longer can hear. The intimate nature of "Spoiler Alert" is one of its greatest strengths, but we are spared — or robbed — of this important, if tough, moment.

Also, cutaways to a young Michael imagining his life as a TV show and a late-game meta scene don't add much to the proceedings, but they don't really take away from them, either.

All in all, it's hard to take much issue with the screenplay by Dan Savage — best known for the syndicated Savage Love column — and David Marshall Grant or with many choices made by Showalter. Little details such as rarely having Kit sit straight up after a certain point in the film, while not drawing attention to them, go a long way.

This is a fine rebound from the director after last year's uneven "The Eyes of Tammy Faye," which gets by largely thanks to the Academy Award-winning performance by Jessica Chastain as TV evangelist Tammy Faye Bakker. (He also helmed the wholly underrated 2020 rom-com "The Lovebirds," which re-teamed him with Nanjiani.)

Like "Spoiler Alert," he's not perfect, but we'll take any movie he directs, be it in sickness or in health.

'Spoiler Alert'

Where: Theaters.

When: Dec. 9.

Rated: PG-13 for sexual content, drug use and thematic elements.

Runtime: 1 hour, 52 minutes.

Stars (of four): 3.