Imaginary Heroes

R

Released Feb 18, 2005

1 hr. 52 min.

Drama

List

35%

106 Reviews

Tomatometer

81%

5,000+ Ratings

Audience Score

After their college athlete son (Kip Pardue) commits suicide, Sandy (Sigourney Weaver) and Ben Travis (Jeff Daniels) re-evaluate their relationship. Their teenage son, Tim (Emile Hirsch), offers some relief from the difficulties when Sandy starts smoking marijuana with him, though Ben feels excluded from their newfound friendship. When Tim realizes he is no longer attracted to his girlfriend, Steph (Suzanne Santo), his interest in neighbor Kyle (Ryan Donowho) takes on a whole new meaning.

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Critics Consensus

Imaginary Heroes is a muddled, melodramatic and unconvincing drama.

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Audience Member

Watch Ordinary People instead.

Rated 3 out of 5 stars

10/24/18

Full Review

Audience Member

I love this movie so much. It has so many elements and shows a family burdened by the grief of a loved one and how it affects them all. Emile Hirsch and Sigourney Weaver both do stunning performances. I've watched this flick so many times.

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

01/13/23

Full Review

william s

A movie in which it's a struggle to stay with and not really worth the effort.

Rated 1 out of 5 stars

03/31/23

Full Review

Frances H

A touching and sometimes darkly humorous portrait of a family trying to deal with the death of a child. As often happens in such cases, it almost tears the family apart, since all are attempting to deal with their grief by themselves. What allows this family to finally come together is the revelation of a secret truth, and that there is a great danger of losing the child they still have.

Rated 3 out of 5 stars

08/01/15

Full Review

Audience Member

How odd that critics rated this so low. It's been one of my favourite dramas for a long time. I love movies about family troubles and problems and this one delivers. I'd compare it to The Ice Storm and Igby goes Down. It has it's humorous points and it's dramatic points. Thoroughly enjoyable.

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

01/14/23

Full Review

Audience Member

Not exactly the happiest movie, it's a suburban drama along the lines of The Ice Storm or American Beauty combining dark humour with tragedy just not quite as well as those movies did. Still strong performances especially from Sigourney Weaver who gives a penetrating portrait as the mother of this dysfunctional clan as we follow year in the life of her family, left devastated by the suicide of the eldest son, a champion swimmer. Jeff Daniels is, wow, quite an asshole here. Very unlikeable and unredeemed by the end. He shows his pain by verbally striking out at his family. Emile Hirshe is young here but does a fantastic job and I really enjoyed the relationship he had with his mother. A decent movie about a family fighting to hold on and make sense of it all. 8/20/14

Rated 3 out of 5 stars

01/12/23

Full Review

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Dan Harris

Director

Sigourney Weaver

Sandy Travis

Emile Hirsch

Tim Travis

Jeff Daniels

Ben Travis

Michelle Williams

Penny Travis

Kip Pardue

Matt Travis

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Empire Magazine

Rated: 2/5

Jul 5, 2005

Full Review

Liam Lacey

Globe and Mail

Although she comes across as bordering on insufferable, we are expected to understand that Sandy is the touchstone of honesty in the film because, like other American films of the Sundance variety, eccentricity signifies emotional authenticity.

Rated: 2/4

Mar 18, 2005

Full Review

Geoff Pevere

Toronto Star

Weaver pretty much keeps Imaginary Heroes aloft.

Rated: 2/4

Mar 18, 2005

Full Review

David Lamble

Bay Area Reporter

Think Ice Storm and Donnie Darko as the American Dream goes terribly awry in the bosom of a suburban family.

May 7, 2020

Full Review

Kaleem Aftab

The List

The fractured, non-linear narrative fires plenty of red herrings and there are plenty of pointless characters with melodramatic side plots that go nowhere.

Rated: 2/5

Apr 24, 2019

Full Review

Cole Smithey

ColeSmithey.com

Sigourney Weaver is impeccable as a distraught mother who resorts to pot to barricade her emotions in writer/director Dan Harris' diamond-sharp treatise on American family dysfunction that makes "The Ice Storm" look like a walk in the park.

Rated: B

Jul 2, 2009

Full Review

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Synopsis

After their college athlete son (Kip Pardue) commits suicide, Sandy (Sigourney Weaver) and Ben Travis (Jeff Daniels) re-evaluate their relationship. Their teenage son, Tim (Emile Hirsch), offers some relief from the difficulties when Sandy starts smoking marijuana with him, though Ben feels excluded from their newfound friendship. When Tim realizes he is no longer attracted to his girlfriend, Steph (Suzanne Santo), his interest in neighbor Kyle (Ryan Donowho) takes on a whole new meaning.

Director: Dan Harris
Screenwriter: Dan Harris
Distributor: Sony Pictures Classics
Production Co: QI Quality International GmbH & Co. KG, Imaginary Heroes, ApolloProMedia, Signature Films
Rating: R (Sexual Content|Language|Some Violence|Substance Abuse)
Genre: Drama
Original Language: English
Release Date (Theaters): Feb 18, 2005, Original
Release Date (Streaming): Sep 1, 2019
Box Office (Gross USA): $228.5K
Sound Mix: Surround, Dolby SRD
Aspect Ratio: Scope (2.35:1)