Opinion: I Am Heath Ledger a pointless exercise in brand management

IT COULD have set the record straight around the actor’s mysterious death — instead I Am Heath Ledger falls short of expectations, says LEIGH PAATSCH.

THE documentary feature I Am Heath Ledger, which premieres in Western Australia this Tuesday evening ahead of a nationwide release on Thursday, is guaranteed to draw a lot of attention in the coming week.

In the words of the late actor’s sister Kate, the film will give the world an opportunity to “see how brilliant he was, and what he was truly about”.

Thanks to a bounty of astonishing, previously unseen footage largely shot by Ledger himself, I Am Heath Ledger does selectively deliver on the first half of that promise.

However, when comes to completing an honest portrait of the real Heath Ledger, the film will fall short of expectations for many. Particularly those still looking to make sense of his brief, often mysterious and always remarkable time among us.

Sadly, a fundamentally crucial component of the Heath Ledger story is the complex set of circumstances that led to his tragic demise in a Brooklyn loft in January 2008.

It still boggles the mind that Ledger was only 28 years of age — and less than 20 movies into a career still charged with vast unexplored potential — when his life was ended by a fatally toxic, self-administered intake of various prescription medications.

Heath Ledger was shooting The Imaginarium Of Doctor Parnassus when he died.

By pointedly avoiding addressing those circumstances, I Am Heath Ledger ultimately parses down to little more than a rather pointless exercise in posthumous brand management.

The narrative line taken by the documentary meekly ascribes Ledger’s passing to a vague combination of factors that came into play while shooting what was to be his last movie, The Imaginarium Of Doctor Parnassus.

Most prominently, simultaneous cases of insomnia, influenza and exhaustion from too many transcontinental flights.

One participant in the film even half-heartedly hints Ledger’s longstanding fascination with famously ill-fated musicians such as Kurt Cobain, Janis Joplin and Nick Drake foreshadowed his own demise.

All of which begs the question: what can possibly be gained at this late stage in further fudging the truth surrounding why Heath Ledger was taken far too soon?

Particularly when those who knew and loved the man for what he truly was have long complained about the rampant and unfounded speculation concerning his death. Much of which continues unchecked to this day.

In the documentary, Ledger’s former agent and close friend Steve Alexander takes aim at those who’ve “come up with versions that are convenient, tidy and tells a good story. The truth is, he was super happy and loving life”.

Theories abounded that Ledger went too deep when playing The Joker in The Dark Knight.

That may indeed be so. Theories espousing Ledger was driven mad by applying too much method to his Oscar-winning role as The Joker in The Dark Knight, or had become despondently self-destructive in the wake of his breakup with partner Michelle Williams, have been allowed to gain too much traction over the years.

Here then was the perfect chance for those Ledger left behind to set the record straight, and let his extraordinary body of work as an actor begin speaking for itself at full volume.

While I Am Heath Ledger rightly lionises his significant achievements as an artist in an unfathomably short period of time, it wrongly sanitises the unique makeup of a person that did not always relish blazing such a meteoric trail.

Instead of expanding upon a legacy still underestimated by many, the film preserves an enigma that diminishes the understanding of one and all.

Ledger’s extraordinary legacy included Brokeback Mountain.

As a figure who notoriously loathed the limelight — Ledger often appeared to equate giving an interview with giving away a kidney — it is not unfair to suggest that were he still alive, Heath Ledger would be aghast at the rose-coloured filter through which the world will be peering at him this week.

Sure, the raw, unvarnished intimacy and intensity of Heath Ledger the actor, and his exemplary performances in Brokeback Mountain, Monster’s Ball, Candy and The Dark Knight, cannot ever be diluted.

However, Heath Ledger the person deserves to be remembered for anything else than merely living fast, dying young, and leaving behind a good-looking doco.

***I Am Heath Ledger opens Thursday for a limited season nationwide.

Originally published as Opinion: I Am Heath Ledger a pointless exercise in brand management