The two of them connect against the odds and although handsome Kit is breezily confident about his sexuality while Michael has body issues from being a self-described “FFK” (Former Fat Kid), the couple sticks. That’s even before the Smurf obsession is revealed, its roots traced to Michael’s loss of his mother at a young age to cancer. Which is lucky because from his failure to get Michael’s Knight Rider reference alone, Kit seems an unlikely match for the vegetarian teetotaler. James) - cracks wise, drinks too much, falls for gay guys - encourages Michael by informing him that Kit’s type is dweeb. The movie becomes instantly more engaging when he gets dragged by a co-worker to jock night at a queer bar and locks eyes with Kit (Ben Aldridge), whose standard-issue best girlfriend Nina (Nikki M. Thankfully, it’s not too long before Michael interrupts his voiceover with, “OK, I’ll shut up now,” after explaining that he never planned for his story to go from sitcom to hospital soap. In a mildly worrisome opening, TV Guide feature writer Michael (Parsons) gives a quick overview of a life he imagines as an ‘80s sitcom called The Ausiellos, yielding clunky inserts with studio laugh tracks that, despite Showalter’s grounding in TV comedy, needed a stronger stylistic command in order to work. That it takes a terminal illness to renew and fortify the mutual commitment makes it all the more emotional.

This is a love story that’s frank about the waning of passion, the ebb of sexual desire, the curdling of affection into irritation, infidelity and the seeming death knell of the trial separation. One of the significant things it has going for it is the refusal to sand the edges off the relationship to view it as a perfect romantic union.

The full title of Ausiello’s book is unequivocal - Spoiler Alert: The Hero Dies - and the script by actor-turned-writer David Marshall Grant and author and LGBTQ activist Dan Savage clues the audience in pretty much from the outset that this will be a grief drama.

It won’t hurt that the December Focus Features release is also a stealth Christmas movie. Spoiler Alert potentially has a shot at appeal beyond that niche, particularly with audiences starved for a genuinely moving, pleasingly old-fashioned four-hankie tearjerker whose sentiments are backed by lived experience. While box office pundits had a range of opinions about the commercial failure of the Billy Eichner vehicle Bros a couple months back, the general view was that the gay rom-com under-performed even within its core demographic. Screenwriters: David Marshall Grant, Dan Savage, based on Michael Ausiello’s memoir Spoiler Alert: The Hero Dies James, Sally Field, Bill Irwin, Jeffery Self, Antoni Porowski Cast: Jim Parsons, Ben Aldridge, Nikki M.

Jim parsons memoir