By Erin Free
Worth: $18.50
FilmInk rates movies out of $20 — the score indicates the amount we believe a ticket to the movie to be worth
Cast:
Val Kilmer, Jack Kilmer, Mercedes Kilmer, Marlon Brando
Intro:
...a wondrous peak behind the curtain at one of the most original and enjoyably confounding actors of his generation.
On the very, very sad passing of the dynamic, idiosyncratic and wholly original screen talent that was Val Kilmer, we revisit the stunning 2021 documentary Val, which offers a moving insight into the complex life and career of this fascinating Hollywood tearaway.
Val Kilmer was a true breakout star of the 1980s, an on-screen powerhouse in films like Top Secret, Real Genius, Top Gun and Willow, boasting good looks, charisma, humour and an uncanny ability to keep the audience guessing. He continued to develop further as an actor with epic, over-the-top performances in films like Tombstone, The Doors and True Romance before the disaster of The Island Of Dr. Moreau and the poor fit of Batman Forever saw him labelled as an oddball and troublemaker. Despite notable bright spots like Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, Spartan, The Salton Sea and a few others, Val Kilmer’s late career was a disappointing but always fascinating shambles. His reputation as being difficult may very well have been appropriately earned (just read interviews with more than a few of the usually reasonable and undeniably talented directors that he has worked with), but there’s no denying that Kilmer could have and should have done so much more in his thirty-plus year career.
Val Kilmer was, however, endlessly compelling as a pop culture figure, and the documentary Val (from seasoned editors turned directors Ting Poo and Leo Scott) is just as strange and involving as you’d hope that it would be. No standard talking-head bio piece, Val is constructed from the hundreds of hours of home video footage that Kilmer filmed, stored and archived from the very beginning of his career in the early 1980s. Like similarly structured docos such as I Am Heath Ledger and Cobain: Montage Of Heck, the result is an often staggeringly intimate portrait, with the film taking you right inside Kilmer’s world. We witness his tragedy-tinged childhood; the earliest days of his career (there’s amazing backstage footage of a baby-faced Sean Penn and Kevin Bacon from Kilmer’s first major theatre work in Slab Boys); his marriage to actress Joanne Whalley (Kilmer is amusingly “on” even in their wedding videos); and his famously intense preparation for his immersive portrayal of Jim Morrison in Oliver Stone’s The Doors. There are also glimpses of the nightmare that was The Island Of Dr. Moreau, including amusing moments with Kilmer’s co-star and idol, Marlon Brando.
Val is also heartbreaking. The home video footage is framed with scenes of Val Kilmer in the later stages of his life, and it’s difficult to watch this once graceful and energetic performer shambling around in pain due to a host of unfortunate health problems. Kilmer was diagnosed with throat cancer in 2015, which led to a tracheotomy, meaning that the actor speaks through a hole in his throat, leaving him near inaudible. This procedure effectively ended his acting career (save for his incredibly emotional cameo appearance in Top Gun: Maverick), and Kilmer was forced into grinding signings and personal appearances in order to make ends meet. It was a tough comedown for someone once overflowing with confidence and self-assurance (even though his fans are lovely, polite folks, and they really love him), and it makes the late Kilmer a truly sympathetic figure. His affectingly close relationship with his adult children (his actor son, Jack Kilmer, touchingly narrates the film on his father’s behalf), however, pushes back effectively against the innate sadness of the project. A fine companion to the actor’s absorbing 2020 memoir I’m Your Huckleberry (well worth a read), Val is a wondrous peak behind the curtain at one of the most original and enjoyably confounding actors of his generation…with his very sad passing, this intimate doco is even more heartbreaking, but it stands as a superb cinematic testament to a truly singular talent.
Val is streaming now on Prime.
