Spoiler Alert

Spoiler Alert takes no prisoners. From its opening minute, it tells you explicitly what kind of movie it’s going to be, and yet at the same time, it doesn’t sabotage the journey you’re going to be on. 

… takes no prisoners.

I’ll explain. Jim Parsons plays Mike, an FFT (or former fat kid) who has body issues to go with his self-conscious gay identity as a journalist working for TV Guide. And yet one day an out-there gay colleague manages to prise him away from his deadlines to go mid-week clubbing. Awkwardly propping up the bar in amongst all the scantily-clad bodies, he’s approached by Kit. A burgeoning photographer with little or no inhibitions, Kit is Mike’s Ying to his Yang and yet there’s an emotional maturity there. By not rushing into anything we discover that both men have uncomfortable truths that neither would like to face. 

Whilst Mike’s nurtures an apartment which looks like it has been housed down with small blue figurines Kit’s issues are a little more barbed. Revolving around his still-in-the- dark parents, played by an on-form Sally Field and a bustling Bill Irwin, neither knows Kit is gay. As a couple who had tickets to 1970s Woodstock and yet never went, it’s their interactions that provide the most humour.

Tragedy is not far around the corner, to sew any lingering prejudices together and in this respect, Spoiler Alert doesn’t deserve its title. 

So, whilst it’s great to see Jim Parsons in a full-on acting role and the central message of this movie that should never stop from being repeated, you, might like me, might be hungry now for the vehicle that’ll allow Jim Parsons to be a bigger bang as a drama stakes.