Val is the self-told story of Val Kilmer; actor, artist, writer, complete lunatic, tragic figure.
As Val says in the movie, he was the first person he knew to own a video camera and, seemingly, he took it literally everywhere. The result is a lifetime of footage that he can call upon in order to tell his story.
In a sense, the movie is the most literal definition of a vanity piece. It is very clear that the story is told very much from Val Kilmer’s perspective. This is both good and bad. Of course, every single aspect of it is one side of the story. However, from that, you gain an insight into the person and he pulls no punches in his own declarations that he is, by no means, the perfect human being.
For sure, there are plenty of cases when he comes across as arrogant, maybe even egotistical in his derision of certain directors (especially John Frankenheimer on the set of The Island of Dr. Moreau) and seemingly refuses to acknowledge his own failings on the set of Batman. Though, with that, he does not shy away from diving deep into the areas of his life that have clearly been the most important things to him. His relationships with his parents, his brothers, the tragic loss of his youngest brother, his marriage to Joanne Whalley, his children, the changes and losses during those relationships are truly laid out in remarkable clarity and honesty. This leaves the movies strangely imbalanced where things like the movies that made his career such as Top Gun are almost glossed over in order to focus on those relationships.
It is always very easy, and most of the time patronising, to hear famous people talk of how the fame is immaterial compared to the underlying life but with Val, you ultimately are left with exactly that impression.
The movie itself could have been a more simple exploration of his success juxtaposed against his personal health issues with throat cancer. However, it is the deep-dive into Val’s personal life that removes, at least partially, the ego from it all. As an example, in his description of being presented with the role of Batman, there is the unabridged joy that he gets to play the role he has always dreamed of since being a child. Yet the reality then was the total opposite. Since, when in the suit, he could barely move, see or hear, he was cut off from the cast and the movie. People stopped talking to him and he would just literally be wheeled in as a prop rather than the lead actor. It was therefore, knowing this, no surprise that he turned down making another movie in the franchise.
The story around his throat cancer diagnosis, his fight with the disease and ultimate recovery is surprisingly a bit-part in the movie. Of course it is, in a sense, omnipresent throughout because you cannot avoid his physical appearance and his difficulty in speaking. However by having his son, Jack, provide the majority of the voiceover during the film, Val’s physical limitations surprisingly evaporate to focus on the stories of other aspects of his life.
The unspoken regrets, particularly regarding the loss of his brother, the effect of that on his father, the loss of his mother and the breakup of his marriage all reveal a profound sadness that Val seems to be trying to paint over rather than accept. This vulnerability makes this a compelling film. The eerie similarity in Jack’s voice to his fathers then makes this movie work on so many levels.
Val says his last role, that of Mark Twain was the role he was born to play. I was left thinking that the role he actually needs to pay more attention to is that of Val Kilmer.
