World's Greatest Dad (2009) [* * * * *]

Most parents tolerate their children because they love them, even when they know their genes may have created an antisocial, misogynist pervert. But iparental love is distorting. I've always wondered if there are parents out there who realise how they live through their children by making up personalities for them.

In this thought-provoking film (a euphemism for tear-jerker:), Robin Williams is a failed writer trying to get published whose son is a pervert. The son dies by accident masturbating to porn using suffocation. The father writes a suicide note to protect his son from ridicule. The note becomes famous and the whole school become fans of the boy they once knew as a jerk. The father takes advantage of the popularity and continues to invent his son as a writer, someone worth knowing, and almost gets published before he breaks the bubble of stifling, reflected fame for normalcy.

I think its educational for parents who distort their children's image to make them more palatable for public consumption - for them to acknowledge their shame which makes them inventive and that only the truth can set them free. Can't say I loved the movie, but it was real to me.