November 17, 2014 -- This film, based on Roger Ebert's memoir of the same name, is a tribute to the man some have called the greatest movie critic ever, and certainly the most influential and inspirational. The movie is in large part about him, but also about his wife, Charlie “Chaz” Ebert, and his longtime TV critic co-host, Gene Siskel.

This film has all the accolades due a man who was one of the few movie critics ever to be awarded the Pulitzer Prize, the most coveted prize in journalism. Chief among those praising him are old friends and filmmakers Werner Herzog and Martin Scorcese (He credits Siskel and Ebert's timely award given to him as literally saving his life at a time when he had slipped into self-destructive despair. Scorcese is also executive producer of this film).

I really liked the stories about Ebert's earlier days as a journalist, holding forth at a bar where reporters hang out, telling stories and drinking hard into the wee hours of the morning in a tough part of Chicago. He was a journalist as a kid writing his own newspaper. He was journalist as a student. He died as a journalist, writing right up to the end. He was also an early adopter of Internet technology and was an expert user of computers.

I did like the glimpses of Ebert's family life. His wife, Chaz, seems to be a very good, loving person, and her kids seem nice, too. She seems like a woman who cares deeply about her husband. She is said to be the main reason Ebert was so determined to fight the cancer as long and hard as he did.

The love-hate relationship between Siskel and Ebert is a fascinating one. Outtakes from their TV shows shows how they bitterly fought over minor things. The disagreements between Ebert and Siskel were what made the show popular. The arguments gave the show a dynamic that few others have ever had. The film suggests, however, that there may have been at least a genuine respect that each man had for the other, if not affection, hidden under the surface of this constant bickering. The film also has one of the funniest stories I've ever heard, about a trick Siskel pulled on Ebert during a long plane flight.

Much of this film is praiseworthy, but I think it really overdoes the hospital scenes of Ebert in his final months as he and his family suffer terribly as he dies from cancer. I get the fact that he wanted people to see him this way, and that he felt betrayed by Siskel, who kept his own cancer a secret, but this is way too much. It is really hard to watch Ebert with his whole lower jaw cut away. His mouth is a hole, you can see right through it to the bandages behind it.

The whole point of this is to show that Ebert was brave. He fought right to the end. If Ebert's life had been made into a fictional film, it would have ended in suicide, that's today's cheap emotional cinematic fashion. In movie suicides, they often cut away. They usually don't show the body twitching at the end of the rope. In this movie, they don't cut away at the end. Real life is often different than the movies, maybe that's the point -- but it is difficult to watch. I had to look away at times. It's like a horror show.

For the most part, the horror show excluded, this film is a fitting tribute to a great film critic and a great champion of films and filmmakers. It is an interesting look into Ebert's life, warts and all, and it packs a real emotional punch, like life itself. This film rates a B.

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