Review: The Death and Life of John F. Donovan

Eleven years ago, a young boy (Jacob Tremblay) secretly corresponded with troubled TV star John Donovan (Kit Harington). Said Mr. Donovan was apparently a closeted gay man who eventually died of a drug overdose. Now the young fan has become a grown man (and played by Ben Schnetzer), and he has written a book about the whole experience. Thandie Newton plays a hard-nosed reporter who interviews Schnetzer, though feeling the story is gossipy tabloid trash and beneath her. Natalie Portman plays the boy’s mother, with Susan Sarandon turning up as Donovan’s mother. Kathy Bates and Michael Gambon have small roles.

 

This 2019 flop is the English-language debut of French-Canadian director Xavier Dolan (“Mommy”), who co-writes with Jacob Tierney (writer-director of “Good Neighbours”, co-starring Dolan). It’s a dreary, pretentious mess that wildly overestimates the charisma and acting ability of lead actor Kit Harington. The first twenty minutes alone are dreadfully repetitive, it’s time-wasting that could’ve and should’ve taken 10 minutes tops. The rest is boring, sloppy, and unconvincing, particularly the awful, inorganic dialogue. I bet there’s a good story as to how this dreadful film turned out the way it did.

 

I found it particularly funny and ironic that the two people playing actors here (Kit Harington and Ben Schnetzer) give the two least credible performances in the entire film. Harington is completely out of his depth in the crucial role, a boring and charmless character who comes off like a fourth-rate Heath Ledger. Or is that just Harington? The role is pretty much the whole show, and needed an actor able to carry the load. Harington just ain’t that guy, though not even a top-tier actor could’ve made much sense out of just why Donovan bothers corresponding with his young fan. Schnetzer is especially weird, the American actor adopting an on-and-off Irish accent to play his character, who as a boy is played with an American accent by Jacob Tremblay. What the hell? I’m pretty sure they have different coloured eyes, too (I’ve read that Schetnzer is quite similar-looking to Dolan, who in his youth wrote fan letters to Leonardo DiCaprio. So there’s that I guess). Schnetzer is awful and distractingly mannered, even the talented Tremblay is unconvincing here – he’s just a kid reciting some lines with no particular distinction. Hell, Natalie Portman is unconvincing too. In the right role Portman can be terrific – “Black Swan”, “Beautiful Girls” – but this was the absolute wrong role for her and one particular tearful scene is especially over-directed and over-acted by Portman. Even Susan Sarandon is having an off day here, though she gets a bit better in the second half. It’s not entirely her fault, as the director largely favours unflattering, garish close-ups where they are unneeded and unwanted. Meanwhile, Kathy Bates is sorely wasted in a nothing part. How often has one sadly had to say that in recent decades? Michael Gambon gives a solid performance in a role that belongs in a different, Capra-esque film. The only one to come out of this thing relatively unscathed is Thandie Newton, in one of her better turns in years, though the character is a fairly one-dimensional one. When she dismisses the story being presented to her (and us) as ‘mishaps from the first world’, I don’t think I was supposed to agree with her. I greatly did though, I was as unimpressed by this guy’s story as she was…until she naturally changes her mind after hearing more. My mind was unchanged.

 

It’s pretty easy to see why the film never went anywhere, I’m afraid. At no point do the two stories feel like they belong in the same film, not even stylistically. A boring, poorly made film about two people I didn’t give two shits about. The subject matter in theory could’ve turned into a good film – if it had the right characters and a decent director. Instead we get this waste of time. Kit Harington is out of his depth. Just an awful mess all-round, despite the big names in the cast.

 

Rating: D-