GLEASON (Clay Tweel). 111 minutes. See listing. Rating: NNNNN
Hollywood will want to make a syrupy biopic about former NFL player Steve Gleason’s fight to live with ALS. Thankfully, the football hero has beat them to the punch, authoring his own intimate, gut-wrenching and inspiring video diary as his muscles deteriorate and his family shoulders the burden of care-giving.
He’s not really doing it for the audience, though. Soon after Gleason was diagnosed with ALS, his wife, Michel, learned she was pregnant. The videos are a way for Gleason to say everything he can to his baby boy before time runs out. That’s enough to leave you a blubbering mess, but this doc, culled from home videos by director Clay Tweel, goes much further. There’s the sentimental stuff but also the raw and messy realities of copying with ALS that often leave everyone feeling physically and emotionally defeated.
Gleason becomes a spokesperson, raising funds to give others struggling with ALS the equipment he’s lucky enough to afford. That role isn’t easy, and the film doesn’t shy away from revealing how such PR work puts even more strain on his marriage to Michel, who is a titanic force. Equal parts charm and indomitable spirit, she can’t be bothered with bullshit posturing for lurking cameras because she’s too busy holding their life together.
