Documentary I Am Heath Ledger fails to set the record straight on revered actor

REVIEW: I Am Heath Ledger is an affectionate celebration of a great talent, but it drops the ball when it comes to his mysterious and tragic demise.

I AM HEATH LEDGER (M)

Directors: Adrian Buitenhuis, Derik Murray

Starring: Heath Ledger, Naomi Watts, Ben Mendelsohn, Ben Harper, Ang Lee.

Rating: Two and a half stars

Verdict: Still missed ... and still missing

IN the words of the late Australian actor Heath Ledger’s sister Kate, a slick new American documentary bearing his name will let the world “see how brilliant he was, and what he was truly about”.

Thanks to a bounty of astonishing, previously unseen footage largely shot by the subject 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 falls well short of expectations.

Sadly, a 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 potential — when his life was ended by self-administered doses of various prescription medications.

Heath Ledger filmed a lot of the footage for the documentary I Am Heath Ledger.

By pointedly avoiding addressing those circumstances, I Am Heath Ledger ultimately parses down to little more than 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.

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Actor Heath Ledger was found unconscious in his bed by his housekeeper and his masseuse about 2.45pm on January 22, 2008.

All of which raises 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 the man for what he truly was have long complained about the unfair and ongoing speculation about his death.

Here was the perfect chance to set the record straight. And that chance has been blown.

Sure, the raw 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.

Originally published as Documentary I Am Heath Ledger fails to set the record straight on revered actor