Father Ben, a perfectionist who worshipped Matt as much as he ignored Tim, insists on continuing to place a meal at the dinner table for the dead boy and begins to drink heavily.

Tim, always in the shadows as the smaller, unathletic, less accomplished "other brother," struggles to get through school while trying to resist the recreational drugs his best friend Kyle Dwyer is always offering him and contemplating having sex with classmate Steph Connors.

[5] Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times observed, "The film might have been stronger as simply the story of the family trying to heal itself after its tragedy, with the focus on Sandy and Tim.

"[3] Mick LaSalle of the San Francisco Chronicle said the film "has a strong narrative spine, with interesting and big things happening throughout - an unexpected virtue in a family drama.

To put it in another way, there's a lean, mean 82-minute drama encased in this flabby 112-minute film... What saves Imaginary Heroes is its essential truthfulness about families, which it reveals, not only in the broad movements of its story but in the small details...

"[6] Peter Travers of Rolling Stone rated the film two out of four stars and added, "Sigourney Weaver is a luminous actress with a tough core of intelligence and wit.

Their scenes together have a warmth that almost makes you forgive Imaginary Heroes... for trying so hard and so futilely to duplicate Ordinary People... What the movie damagingly lacks is a personality of its own.

Bonus features include commentary with either Sigourney Weaver or Dan Harris and Emile Hirsch, deleted scenes, and a behind-the-scenes featurette and photo gallery.