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Higher education professional by day, writer and pop culture enthusiast by night. When he isn't writing for The Cinema Spot, Tristian can be found creating content for his YouTube and TikTok pages, or working on the young adult novel he has been trying to finish for the last three years.
It is not hyperbolic to say that Michael Showalter’s Spoiler Alert will leave you extremely emotional. It’s a moving love story based on the real-life events of entertainment journalist, Michael Ausiello, and his late husband, Kit Cowan.
Discussion
Jim Parsons and Ben Aldridge portray Michael Ausiello and Kit Cowan, respectively. Parsons portrays Michael as a serious and uptight entertainment journalist who spends his nights at home and rarely goes out for drinks with his co-workers. He also has an extremely vivid imagination and reimagines his childhood as a cheesy sitcom.
As fate would have it, he ends up meeting Kit the night he goes to a club at the insistence of a friend from work. Aldridge’s Kit is charming, warm, and quickly manages to break down the wall Michael has put up. The two fall in love and spend the next thirteen years together. It’s during a particularly rough patch in their relationship that they find out Kit has cancer, and although his doctors do their best, it becomes clear that Kit will succumb to his illness.
Adapting a Story of Life to the Screen
The movie is an adaptation of Ausiello’s 2017 memoir, Spoiler Alert: The Hero Dies At The End. It shows the good, the bad, and the ugly of Michael and Kit’s relationship, everything from having to awkwardly come out to Kit’s parents to Ausiello confronting Kit about his suspected infidelity. There is also a comedic scene in which Michael reveals his apartment to Kit. The apartment in question is covered in Smurf paraphernalia. It is as adorable and endearing as it is bizarre. Throughout it all, Parsons and Aldridge make sure viewers are aware of how deeply these two men love and care for each other.
Parsons powerfully conveys the transformative power of love, as his portrayal of Michael Ausiello goes from meek and reserved to strong, resilient, and outspoken. The scene in the hospital during which he demands Aldridge’s Cowan be given a bed during his cancer treatment will always stay with me. It illustrates the fact that love empowers you in ways you least expect.
Sally Field and Bill Irwin as Kit’s parents are also standouts. Although early in the movie they struggle to understand why their son had hidden his sexuality from them, they quickly warm up to it and accept Michael. Irwin is the funny and loveable dad with an endless stream of horrible jokes. Field is the ferocious but nurturing mother who just wants her child to be happy. Her chemistry with Parsons is palpable, and I really hope these two will do another film together in the future.
Final Thoughts on Spoiler Alert
Although it is a love story that informs you from the beginning that it is going to end tragically, Spoiler Alert will have you laughing, crying, and yearning for a love as powerful and endearing as Michael Ausiello and Kit Cowan’s.
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Higher education professional by day, writer and pop culture enthusiast by night. When he isn't writing for The Cinema Spot, Tristian can be found creating content for his YouTube and TikTok pages, or working on the young adult novel he has been trying to finish for the last three years.
This article was edited by John Tangalin.