Supernova (2021) * * *

 

Directed by:  Harry Macqueen

Starring:  Colin Firth, Stanley Tucci

Sam (Firth) and Tusker (Tucci) are a longtime couple taking what will likely amount to a final road trip together.   Tusker is suffering from dementia.   He is himself most days, but has a tendency to wander off and forget things.   These are two men who have been together so long they know each other's rhythms and are beyond comfortable with each other's full being.   Tusker wants Sam, a renowned concert pianist, to perform a gig somewhere in the English countryside and renew his career.   Sam wants Tusker, a writer, to continue writing, but as the illness progresses we find this may not be possible.

Supernova documents in moving and emotional fashion the decision Tusker makes to commit suicide before he doesn't remember who he is or Sam is anymore.   He doesn't want to be a burden to Sam, while Sam fully wants to be burdened.   Or so he thinks he does.   One of the best scenes in the final act of Supernova is how Sam stumbles across Tusker's plans and how they deal with the decision honestly and with scorching truth.   Sam tries in vain to talk Tusker out of suicide, but he knows Tusker won't budge.   

Firth and Tucci are superb.   I'm tempted to say, oh heck I'll just say it...as usual.   Supernova is a basically a movie in which the leads are together nearly all the time and are constantly speaking.   In a short span, we learn their history through dialogue.   We never doubt their love for each other.   In retrospect, the first few minutes may be a mite too talky, but this establishes the comfort these men have with each other.   This makes the final moments so heartbreaking and shattering.   

Are we witnessing a premature end to their life together?   Is Tusker perhaps being too proud?   Or is Tusker being pragmatic while Sam is being romantic?    Is Tusker being selfish or selfless?   Supernova sees things from all angles and the answers can only come from Sam and Tusker.    The film, written and directed by Harry Macqueen, is roughly ninety minutes but could've shaved off about ten minutes to make it even more taut.   But no matter, because the emotional payoffs are so real they seem almost like this is happening to people we know.