In the summer and fall of 2022, “Bros” and “Fire Island” made inroads as high-profile gay rom-coms, queering the familiar genre. Now, arriving just in time for Christmas, we have “Spoiler Alert,” a heart-rending holiday weepie about two men in love, facing cancer together. Based on the memoir by TV journalist Michael Ausiello, “Spoiler Alert” tells the story of Ausiello’s marriage to Kit Cowan: how they fell in love and forged a partnership, with all the attendant struggles of a long-term relationship, and then walked together through Kit’s battle with a rare form of neuroendocrine cancer.
“The Big Bang Theory” star Jim Parsons plays Michael, the dweeby-cute TV nerd who writes for TV Guide and collects Smurfs paraphernalia, while English actor Ben Aldridge plays Kit, an undeniably hot aspiring photographer. One night, a co-worker drags Michael to “jock night” at a bar after work, where he locks eyes with Kit on the dance floor, and the rest is history.
The screenplay marks the feature screenwriting debut of Dan Savage, who is known for his sex advice column “Savage Love” in the Seattle alt-weekly The Stranger, as well as his long-running podcast, “The Savage Lovecast.” Savage adapted Ausiello’s 2017 book with David Marshall Grant, and the screenplay maintains the grounded honesty that feels typical to Savage’s work, despite the sappy Hollywood romance trappings of the film.
