Review of World's Greatest Dad (2009) by Archibald T — 22 Mar 2011

Lance Clayton becomes famous through his own son's "suicide". I say that with quotations because he didn't commit suicide. His son, Kyle, instead died through auto erotic asphyxiation. To not further any humiliation to his son, Lance stages a suicide. He makes it look like Kyle hung himself in his closet.

Lance always wanted to be a famous writer. He gets rejected constantly from publishers. To make matters worse, his son is an asshole. Kyle has no redeeming qualities except for being a pervert. So it's understandable to know why Lance doesn't freak out on his son since the kid obviously could care less what his father thinks or does.

Lance is a school teacher. He teaches English, but not many students take his course in poetry. One other teacher, Mike, seems to get most of the attention after an article of his shows up in the New Yorker. Even Lance's girlfriend who is also a teacher, Claire, finds this attractive about Mike.

Claire is one of those women who will obviously sleep with someone who is, well, famous. Lance may or may not want to believe it, but Claire is getting some on the side with Mike. Too bad.

After having a date with Claire though, he returns home to find his son dead from auto erotic asphyxiation. Lance breaks down when he realizes it. He stages it as a suicide, even writes a suicide note and boom! His son's death wasn't one big humiliation.

So how does Lance become famous? Well, it all starts with that suicide note. One of the students got their hands on it and published it in the school paper. It effects everyone that reads it and everyone starts to see Kyle in a different light. He went from a pervert to a saint thanks to the World's Greatest Dad.

Now, since Lance can't get his writing career off the ground he decides to make up a journal that Kyle wrote. He does this after talking with the guidance counselor who tells him that all the students are so touched by Kyle's suicide note. Lance writes down a shit load of bullshit, turns it in to the counselor and before you know it Lance has his first piece of work published!

Something is fishy though. You see Kyle had a friend, Andrew. He hung around Kyle all the time. So seeing and hearing all these positive things about Kyle really makes Andrew suspicious.

With Lance's fame through his son's death, Claire becomes smitten with him. He even goes on a talk show to talk about his book, I mean his son's "suicide". Somewhere along the line, Lance confesses the real truth of how Kyle died to everyone after Bruce Hornsby plays a song (for which Lance told everyone that Kyle liked, but wasn't true. Lance likes Bruce Hornsby.).

After his confession, everyone turns on him. "I use to think the worse thing in life was to end up all alone," he says. "It's not. The worse thing in life is to end up with people who make you feel all alone." And with that Lance quietly leaves, stripping off all his clothes while the tune 'Under Pressure' plays. He makes his way to the swimming pool where he dives in, naked.

The trailer to this film makes it look like a father having trouble with his son. Partially true. If you're easily offended with suicide I would seriously suggest you don't watch this film because it's pitch black to the core and I loved it. A surprisingly well made dark comedy.