Supernova: Neon NZ Movie Review

Cast: Stanley Tucci, Colin Firth

Director: Harry Macqueen

That Supernova deals with the fallout of a devastating disease - dementia in this case - is admirable. But that it does it in such an overtly subtle way throughout is less admirable, leaving you feeling the whole issue is lightly being danced around.

That's not to detract from the terrific work done by both Firth and Tucci, whose tender relationship anchors this film and grounds it, but also leaves you wanting the film to have been more daring when exploring the emotional devastation wrought on a long-term couple.

Tucci is Tusker Mulliner, a writer whose life is nearing an end because his creative edges are being slowly ravaged by the onset of dementia. Firth is Sam, his soulful and melancholy mate, whose eyes betray every single ounce of fear he feels over what's befalling the love of his love.

Driven on by Sam, the pair take a roadtrip around Britain, visiting the haunts of where they first fell in love and where life blossomed before the vine was so cruelly withered by the disease. But Tusker has more up his sleeve, having "forgotten" his medication....

The poignancies of Supernova come more from what's unsaid in the tender and unfussy, but grounded and real, relationship between Tusker and Sam. Early scenes show the duo playfully bickering on the road, as quarrels over which roads to take, how to read a map, and where they go demonstrate a shorthand of a long lived-in relationship that's excellently conveyed by the pair.

But then the melancholy starts to hit Supernova, and Macqueen's penchant for subtleties teeter on the mawkish as the realities of the disease start to hit home.

In the forlorn Firth and the almost wistful Tucci, the film finds its strengths; in fact most of the movie would be lost in other actors' hands. The duo gel, the tenderness feels real and the subtleties of their relationship are wonderfully and demonstrably shown by the duo - they are a couple for the ages.

Yet, at times, it feels like Supernova is shallow in its exploration of the onset of dementia, and almost dangerously romanticising the practicalities and realities of those impacted. At times, it's close to giving off an emotionless pitch, leaving you almost uncaring in Sam and Tusker's journey toward darkness.

Thankfully, Firth and Tucci do much to keep the film centred and rooted solely in their relationship in a tender and moving way. From brief glances to troubled countenances, this is a movie that dallies more with the human side of the relationship than the existential dread ahead for those afflicted.

It all culminates in a somewhat curious denouement that feels earned, but weirdly emotionless - where there should be tears, despite beautiful lovely acting, there is a void. There is also a stillness in this void though, a sign of tenderness respected and a celebration of quiet strength.

Whereas other dramas could have gone for explosive revelations, Supernova, despite its somewhat grandiose title, chooses to allow small emotional truth bombs of the oncoming reality to pepper its run time. It's a smaller film in many ways, carried by two astral turns, and a desire to approach a subject usually mined for explicit drama in a more subtle and downbeat yet humane way.

Whether that's enough to be as affecting for the audience remains to be seen - were it not for Firth and Tucci, it would have been more a damp squib than the emotional Supernova it aspires to, and far too occasionally reaches.