The Death & Life of John F. Donovan

About the movie

Just before she is to head to Václav Havel Airport to catch a flight, political journalist Audrey Newhouse is given a last minute assignment in Prague by her editor: to interview actor Rupert Turner about his just released book which covers his years long correspondence with fellow actor John F. Donovan, who passed away approximately ten years ago from a drug overdose, with John and Rupert never having met despite that correspondence. At the time of the correspondence, John, a generation older, was an established star on television, he a series' lead portraying a mortal superhero of sorts, while Rupert was an adolescent/preteen schoolchild, he and his single mother at the time having moved overseas to Harrow in Metropolitan London. It was also a correspondence which neither John or Rupert had mentioned to anyone else until several years into it, those on Rupert's side of the story incredulous as to the authenticity of his claims, he already bullied at school which only increased because of it. It is an assignment that Audrey does not much want in not having read the book, in not being a "fluff" entertainment reporter, and believing, what little she knows of the book, Rupert, and John, the book itself a vanity piece for self-promotion. As Rupert tells his and John's respective stories, much of the latter from needing to read between the lines of the correspondence and knowing what happened to John, and the seeming parallels between the two letter writers a generation in age apart, Rupert tries to convince Audrey of the importance of the book, not only for himself as he saw the correspondence as saving him, but to others who may read it.—Huggo