Spoiler Alert

Spoiler Alert is a film that tells a story of a not-so-perfect relationship that will make you laugh, cry, and feel like you're part of Michael and Kit's life.

Just in time for the holidays, director Michael Showalter has gifted viewers with a good old-fashioned tearjerker, one that earns its tears without resorting to a brute force assault on your heartstrings. Spoiler Alert operates with a lot of humor and more than a little grace.

Both Parsons and Aldridge surrender to the material, and we are moved as Kit and Michael come to a deeper understanding and appreciation of their love for each other.

At times Spoiler Alert feels like an edgy, clever film that plays wittily on the main character’s lifelong obsession with TV. At others, it feels like a more formulaic, holiday-themed tearjerker — the passing years are marked in a Christmas card montage! — that wrings our tears in unsubtle ways.

Despite the narrative elements that are part of Michael’s coping mechanisms, Aldridge and Field effectively salvage the emotional core of “Spoiler Alert,” bringing us back to the heart of the matter, and giving space to the feelings that should flow freely in a film like this.

It made me cry at the end, but my tears were as canned and untrustworthy as the sound of a sitcom laugh track. I could barely remember what I had just watched, only that it was often honest enough to make me want to be with my family but never specific enough to justify the fact that I wasn’t.

By the time the interminable finale reaches, over-reaches and gracelessly makes its exit, we’ve lost track of anything we found sweet, funny, charming or touching that came before it.

I literally cried my eyes out. I loved this movie and this story so much. It's so authentic, and heartbreaking but funny and heartwarming. Besides an incredible cast, the character of Michael (I am a big fan of Ausiello as well) felt so awkwardly close to what many people are, complex, difficult and charming. A piece of **** cinema that I won't forget!

I really enjoyed this movie. It was a sincere romance film that was also incredibly funny, with humour interspersed even throughout the excruciatingly sad portions. Ben Aldridge delivered an outstanding performance the entire time, flawlessly showcasing his range. This story was all the more intriguing because it was based on a book, and the actors remark that they drew heavily from Kit Cowan's artefacts and the original source material. When I watched this movie, I both laughed and cried. Although nothing shone out in a particularly remarkable way, it was still one of the better vacation romance films.

Good movie about the ups and downs of a relationship over the years. There is an ebb and flow to the interactions between a couple over the years when you are together 24/7, and this movie captures that.

I'm not quite sure about making the comparison, but I couldn't help myself from making it in my head while watching it, as Spoiler Alert accomplishes with stunning ease what Bros couldn't. However, the big problem is that this film tackles a dramatic side that clouds the connection and relationship of Jim Parsons and Ben Aldridge's characters, which is basically the driving force of this story. Had this been a full-on comedy, it would have been great to see their interactions vary, but being a drama where one is dealing with an illness, there are only so many places the two of them can explore. Nonetheless, I found Spoiler Alert to be a pretty effective film, even if its proposed plot has been seen several times before.

Just like the memoir this is based on, the film lets you know right up front that the boyfriend (Ben Aldridge) is going to die. That leaves the rest of the movie to watch their relationship develop. Jim Parsons plays the other half (and narrates), a mild-mannered writer who ends up with the handsome guy "out of his league." When they're meeting and falling in love, the dialogue and their chemistry keeps it interesting and upbeat. Needless to say, when the illness starts, things get heavy. Surprisingly, even with a touching final scene, the emotional impact was not hankie-worthy. The premise is very Hallmark and the result pretty much stays in that mold without much to make it memorable. NOTE: Stay thru the early credits for a short video of the real guy.