There is grief throughout the poignant “My True Fairytale” but there’s hope and inspiration, too. Writer/director D.Mitry based this feature on the tragic death of his teenage daughter in an accident and chose a spiritual approach to processing grief and offering ideas of what it can teach us. The film will resonate with teenagers, who make up the heart of the story, and with anyone who has suffered unfathomable loss.
The film opens with a car crash involving three 17 year olds in Florida. Sarah (Morgan Lindholm) and her boyfriend Andre (BJ Mitchell) escape the submerged wreck with minor injuries but Angie (Emma Kennedy) is nowhere to be found. As the police search the river for her, Angie narrates the film and appears at the bedsides of her two friends and to various people in her small orbit. Is she a ghost? Is she alive and pursing her mission to become the “superhero” she’s always wanted to be and “save the world”? The film keeps us guessing at first.
Then the assorted characters who, as Angie says, took a wrong turn begin to make better choices. A brusque businessman stops dismissing his troubled son who witnessed the accident and just wants his father’s attention; a limo driver realizes he’s been unfair to his own teenage daughter. The story mostly focuses on Angie’s attempt to connect with her estranged father, Dean (Darri Ingolfsson), a Los Angeles musician wracked with guilt over leaving Angie when she was a child with his caring but exasperated parents, well played by pros Joanna Cassidy and Bruce Davison.
Each life seems to have been touched by an angel. That may sound corny and sentimental but as these characters become better versions of themselves, it just might bring tears to your eyes and maybe move you to hold loved ones just a little closer.