‘Super/Man: The Christopher Reeve Story’: Sundance Review

Dirs: Ian Bonhote, Peter Ettedgui. UK, US. 2024. 104 mins.

The life and work of Superman star Christopher Reeve is framed and largely recounted by his family and friends in Ian Bonhote and Peter Ettedgui’s increasingly moving documentary. Instead of treating the star’s life chronologically, they move between a consideration of his career and his spinal injury advocacy work in the wake of the devastating 1995 horse-riding accident that left him paralysed from the neck down. The result has the engaging feel of a dialogue between the pre- and post-accident Reeve and his family as his views and his life shifted as a consequence.

Bonhote and Ettedgui craft a celebration of the actor while acknowledging his flaws

Although the star’s name is in the title, this is also a testimony to the love and commitment of his wife Dana, their son Will, and Reeve’s children Matthew and Alexandra from his previous relationship with Gae Exton, who is also interviewed. Reeve died two decades ago ago this year but he also has a vital presence not just in film and news footage but in voiceover from archive recordings, while home videos add an intimate dimension. All of which means Super/Man should have no problem attracting distributors after its screenings in the Premieres section of the Sundance Film Festival.

Tight editing from Otto Burnham is evident from the start in a flurry of snippets of Reeve playing Superman in 1978. But almost immediately, his children and Dana, who died at just age 44 in 2005, are put front and centre. “A hug from my mom was like being wrapped up by the sun,” Will recalls.

The directors also repeatedly return to a contemplation of a Superman-like frozen bronze drifting in a nebula, with crystals the colour of kryptonite sometimes breaking out from its surface as Reeve or others talk about the physical effects of the accident.

Although not offering chapter and verse on Reeve’s childhood, the directors allow a feel for it to emerge, particularly his difficult relationship with his father, the poet FD Reeve, and his parents’ difficult divorce when Reeve was three. As the film moves on to the moment the then-unknown off-off-Broadway star was given the superhero role that shot him to stardom, plenty of enjoyable anecdotes emerge, including his friend and fellow actor Jeff Daniels remembering how William Hurt implored him not to “sell out”. Consideration of Donner’s film is also a reminder of a world a galaxy away from ours, where an audience for a comic book hero movie was far from assured.

The light tone of these early recollections helps to balance some of the more heartrending memories that come later.

As the back and forths between his sex symbol period and post-accident life continue, the directors consider his relationsip with Exton before the life-saving role Dana played in Reeve’s recovery comes into focus.. There’s also a sense of the deep friendships Reeve accrued down the years, not least with comic Robin Williams, who was in the same year as him at Julliard. Glenn Close, who was a friend of both men, says with conviction that she believes Williams would still be here if Reeve was. Other contributors include Whoopi Goldberg, Susan Sarandon and US climate envoy John Kerry, who like many of the interviewees, finds himself on the verge of tears when talking about Reeve.

Bonhote and Ettedgui craft a celebration of the actor while acknowledging his flaws. Before the accident, there’s a sense that he was so active he often left his kids in his wake and it’s evident his childhood caused him to have problems regarding commitment. After he was paralysed, we get a sense of his determination to recover and to raise money for others with similar conditions. Neuroscientist and politician Brooke Ellison, who is paralysed and whose story Reeve brought to the screen as a director in 2004, also talks about the importance of his advocacy work.

Through it all, Dana was a pillar of strength who also helped him to see that quality of life for those affected by spinal injuries is just as vital as recovery. The film reaches its poignant climax as the children recall both their dad’s final moments and less than two years later, the death of Dana, although this hardly needs the additional emphasis it is given by Ilan Eshkeri’s score. It’s a raw and exposed moment but one that is counterpointed by the successes The Christopher and Dana Reeve Foundation has achieved in their names.

All children know that Clark Kent is still a hero even when he doesn’t have his cape on and the same could be said of Reeve, whose own kids have proved to be his lasting super-power.