Mark Reviews Movies: SUPERNOVA (2021)

Follow on Facebook | Follow on Twitter | Become a Patron

Review by Mark Dujsik | January 28, 2021

Supernova doesn't evade its tough subject matter or the difficult conversations that must emerge from it, but the movie definitely delays its most vital revelations and discussions. The result is a story that eventually feels manufactured to elicit a devastating emotional payoff, instead of allowing the situation and its characters to arrive at it in a natural way.

The subject, as it becomes clear after a short while, is a man living with dementia and the toll this condition has taken on his husband. The first delay from writer/director Harry Macqueen is in just how long it takes for the story to reveal this important information.

Again, though, that part doesn't feel manipulative. We know something is amiss with Tusker (Stanley Tucci), a successful writer, as he and his husband Sam (Colin Firth), a fairly famous pianist, are on the road. They're taking a road trip in an RV across the English countryside, in order to revisit important places and people from their lives. The destination is a small town, where Sam has agreed to a small, relaxed comeback concert of sorts.

One of the undeniable pleasures of this movie is how well Macqueen and his two actors portray the central relationship. There is such ease between them—such comfort, such joviality, such awareness, such tenderness. After a hypnotic opening, in which stars appear in the night sky accompanied by a few notes on a piano building toward a melody, we simply see the two men sleeping in bed together, without a care in the world and with complete security.

Together, these two performances recapture that sense of effortless love in what appears to be a series of inconsequential moments. Sam and Tusker sit in silence, as the trees and fields pass through the windows, or talk and joke about nothing much at all (Tusker joshes Sam's minor celebrity at a diner, and Sam jokes about how Tusker said he loved him about five minutes after they met). The more important details for the story that slowly evolves, though, are that Sam isn't completely on board with this plan and that he wished Tusker had let him pack the writer's luggage.

There's another, less relaxing feeling building up between the two men, and it's the very tangible sense that they're avoiding some topic. The revelation is simple: Sam goes into a store to pick up supplies, and when he returns to the camper, Tusker has gone with the couple's dog. After driving down a side road for a while, Sam finds his husband, standing alone and confused in the middle of nowhere. Macqueen keeps the camera removed from the ensuing conversation, but we can tell what's happening. Sam has to remind Tusker about himself, Sam, where he is, what they're doing, or some combination of any of these things.

From here on, Macqueen does allow these two, as well as some assorted family members and friends, talk openly about what's happening Tusker and what his fate, slowly losing his mental and physical capacities (Tucci's performance is potently subtle in displaying these effects), will eventually be. The focus of this story, somewhat admirably, isn't about Tusker deteriorating condition (Indeed, save for the scene on the road and some moments of minor difficulties, he seems in fine health and good spirits). The story is primarily about this relationship: Sam's need to care for the man he loves, no matter what's happening now or in the future, and Tusker's desire for his husband to realize that he won't be alone, even when the end inevitably comes.

There's a party at the home of Sam's sister (played by Pippa Haywood) and brother-in-law (played by Peter MacQueen). Tusker starts and Sam finishes a big speech about family, friends, and love. Tusker has a quiet moment of existential hope, talking about the stars and our origins from stardust. Sam discovers that there's more to Tusker's plan for this road trip and the concert, and Macqueen's camera, just as with the moment of Tusker lost on the road, stays back for the detail that matters the most.

It's clear that Macqueen knows exactly what he's doing here, particularly in the specific way that certain information is kept from the audience. The main question, especially when the movie's final scenes delve deeply into these characters' fears and plans and separate needs in regards to Tusker's illness, is whether or not the filmmaker's postponing maneuvers serve this story and these characters honestly. When the movie's big moment—a lengthy conversation about Tusker's intentions and Sam's refusal to go along with them—arrives, there's a sudden punch of painful honesty, dealing with much more than anything the movie has even approached until that point.

It's a shock, to be sure, in that we're instantly confronting a debate that has no easy answer and, no matter what is decided, a lot of pain in store for at least one of these characters. When the scene arrives in Supernova, we're also left feeling as if the whole of the drama has been backloaded. It may be honest, yes, but in trying to leave the core emotions of this story until a big payoff, how much honesty has Macqueen avoided or ignored in the process?

Back to Home

Buy Related Products

Buy the Soundtrack (Digital Download)