Cady's Take:

Matt, the eldest son of the Travis family is an Olympics bound swimming champion. But, he hates swimming with a passion and can't deal with all the attention his talent brings him, so only a minute or two into the film, he shoots himself in the head.

Matt's suicide has left his mother, Sandy (Sigourney Weaver), and especially his father, Ben (Jeff Daniels), devastated in credible but radically different ways. For Ben, Matt's suicide is the death of every cherished vision of the future. It's quickly obvious that Matt was his shining star.

The real protagonist of the film is younger brother Tim (Emile Hirsch), who goes through life with the painful awareness of being the lesser son. He is a child trying to find his way, confused, angry and racked with guilt. Much of the film's heart comes from the relationship between Tim and his mother. I love when she tells Tim: "You may never know how really good I am for you until I die. I never loved my parents until they died."

"Imaginary Heroes" has a strong narrative spine but errs on the side of too much information. I was somewhat disappointed that it failed to reveal as much about Sandy as it does Tim, clearly the film's two dominant characters. Though I do applaud what I believe to be a pretty accurate account of how people grieve in reality.

"Imaginary Heroes" is about a lot of things, but it should only be about one thing, which is the relationship between young Tim Travis (Emile Hirsch) and his mother Sandy (Sigourney Weaver). Sandy's other son Kip, a promising swimmer, commits suicide in the beginning of the movie, and the remainder of the film is naturally about how those left behind deal with "it". In spite of the plot of the movie being muddied with sub-plots like Sandy's ongoing feud with her neighbor, Tim's coming-of-age in the midst of family tragedy, and his father Ben's (Jeff Daniels) inability to deal with the death of his eldest (and favorite) son, "Imaginary Heroes" is a compelling story and for the most part, very well told.

I really like this Emile Hirsch - I recognize him from television, in guest-starring roles in "ER" and "NYPD Blue", as well as his turn in "The Emperor's Club". He has this quality of sincerity that comes through, especially when he plays these sort of sensitive, introverted characters. Sigourney Weaver really blew me away. This movie is FAR superior to the other film she did in 2004, "The Village", which was a singularly horrible film.

"Imaginary Heroes" has a lot of imagination, and that's something these days, when lately every movie feels like a retread. At just under 2 hours this is an excellent prospect for your weekend movie selection.