"Dick Johnson is Dead" is a documentary but it's not like any documentary you might have seen since director Kirsten Johnson constructs this portrait of her father like a work of fiction; an apparent 'tribute' to her father as he approaches death done as a series of surreal sketches in which Dick, the dad in question, 'dies' over and over again in a variety of ways. Of course, for the purposes of the film it's not the real Dick who is dying but a number of recruited stand-ins while death, in some form, permeates the picture. Now I don't have a problem with death but as someone who loves life and who wants to hang on to it for as long as possible, I'm not sure I go along with Kirsten's fantastical view of what might take Dick from this earth and what might happen to him after he goes.
If Heaven is anything like Kirsten imagines then keep me from it, (it's a kitsch, camp John Waters version). What keeps you watching is Dick himself. A one-time psychiatrist, he's the kind of personable, sweet, funny father we might all wish for and I just wish his daughter could have celebrated him in a less morbid fashion. Ultimately this is a professional home-movie the Johnson family might treasure but it feels just a little too personal for the rest of us while the final 'funeral' scene, meant to be uplifting no doubt, I found almost unendurably tasteless.
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