I had been planning on maybe skimming 'Val', the new Amazon documentary on the actor Val Kilmer, and was surprised when two of my best friends highly recommended it. It seems Mr. Kilmer has an awful lot of goodwill from members of my generation, though I personally harbored no great affection for the man. None of his movies were particular touch stones for me, and I'm well aware of his reputation as being difficult to work with.
While in this documentary I feel that Mr. Kilmer understandably downplays his excesses, for example he casts himself chiefly as victim on troubled production of 'The Island of Dr. Moreau' when he was in fact one of its principle 'bad actors', you do feel some sympathy for him. He opens up about quite a few things, including a difficult childhood, and as now a victim of throat cancer whose voice will never be the same he elicits a healthy dose of pity.
Kilmer also proves to have been a pack rat, near obsessive in self documentations and his home movies, videos and writings provide a major source of material for this movie. I did feel the film ran a little too long, and it has been suggested to me that it might be better apricated if watched in segments. ***
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