World's Greatest Dad (2009)

IMDb plot summary: When his son's body is found in a humiliating accident, a lonely high school teacher inadvertently attracts an overwhelming amount of community and media attention after covering up the truth with a phony suicide note.

Directed by Bobcat Goldthwait. Stars Robin Williams, Daryl Sabara, and Morgan Murphy.

World's Greatest Dad stars Robin Williams as a father with the world's worst son: a cruel, crass, disinterested teenager who shows no interest in anything or fondness for anyone. When the son accidentally passes away during an attempt at autoerotic asphyxiation, Williams decides to stage his death as a suicide, complete with note, which makes people see his son in a whole new light that is in no way consistent with the person he was. For any of my theater friends who are thinking, “this sounds a lot like Dear Evan Hansen,” you're not wrong, although this does a better job of telling that story. In the first portion of this film I found myself really not excited to spend a full two hours with the son character, so it was definitely an emotional journey when I suddenly learned I wasn't going to have to, for very sad in-story reasons. Williams himself is of course an exceptionally empathetic character. He always had an extraordinary ability as an actor to engender sympathy, even when doing some terrible things as he does in this movie. I am not sold on the ending -- I don't think it really ties the whole thing together, and that kind of lets it down for me as a whole. But it's an interesting film with a subtle performance by Williams.

How it entered my Flickchart:

🎥 World's Greatest Dad (2009)

📊 Ranked #2127/4294 on my Flickchart

🎯 Flickscore™: 52

lost to I Lost My Body (#2148 → #1963)

beat The Conjuring (#3241 → #3238)

beat It's Not You, It's Me (#2685 → #2682)

beat An Innocent Man (#2420 → #2411)

beat Out of Africa (#2289 → #2581)

beat Rodney King (#2220 → #2213)

lost to Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (#2188 → #2173)

beat Super/Man: The Christopher Reeve Story (#2204 → #2400)

beat EDtv (#2196 → #2188)

beat Fatherhood (#2192 → #2393)

beat Source Code (#2190 → #2184)

lost to Vanya on 42nd Street (#2189 → #2181)