Super/Man: The Christopher Reeve Story Review
Super/Man: The Christopher Reeve Story is a uniquely insightful piece of filmmaking. It’ll break your heart and fill you with hope, but in doing so makes itself unmissable viewing on the big screen.
The film follows Christopher Reeve’s remarkable journey to becoming a film star, including his embodiment of his most famous character Superman, and his meeting with his wife Dana; before a near-fatal horse-riding accident in 1995 left him paralyzed from the neck down. Reeves became an activist for spinal cord injuries, and the film follows his redefinition of his life, love, career and self after the accident.
Super/Man: The Christopher Reeve Story tackles the iconic story of Christopher Reeve with nuance and sensitivity, but uses the wealth of archival footage available for the man to really tremendous effect in crafting a story that makes you feel like you know Christopher, Dana and the whole family.
Sure, there are plenty of starry cameos on display here - Susan Sarandon, Whoopi Goldberg, Glenn Close and Jeff Daniels all pop up, alongside some big name politicians, directors, and more - but the real appeal of this documentary is the intimacy it has with its subject.
Directors Ian Bonhote and Peter Ettedgui work in some wonderfully apt archival footage with the interviews to really tell a story that feels intimate, without ever losing the grandiosity of the subject matter. There are some tremendous looks behind the scenes at Reeves’ highest moments (his time as Superman is particularly interesting) and his lowest (the hospital footage immediately after the accident, or the home footage as he comes to grips with his disability, are both heartbreaking). But Bonhote and Ettedgui really utilise this footage to the best when they mix it together.
The whole documentary works on this concept of mixing; jumping backward and forward between Reeve’s two timelines - before and after his accident - and presenting both linearly. It keeps things fresh and interesting throughout, but also has moments where the mechanism can craft some uniquely inspiring moments of juxtaposition. In particular, the stitching of Reeve’s post-accident speech at the DNC with Superman’s speech to the UN is remarkably affecting.
There are a few moments that don’t work. The film has a CGI rendering of Reeve in space as a recurring motif, and perhaps dips back into that well a little too often. But by the end of the film, with the tragic passing of both Christopher and his greatest champion Dana, you’ll be hard pressed not to be in a puddle of tears.
