To most of us, Paul Walker was just a Hollywood star and a stranger, but the I Am Paul documentary chronicles his life and death so intimately that you really feel the tragedy of his death – and it hurts like hell.
There’s so much we didn’t know about the late actor. He was a daredevil with a passion for the ocean, marine biology, humanitarian work and his daughter, and it’s apparent that acting and being part of the Hollywood scene was never his dream so much as something he was naturally suited to.
By telling his story through interviews with his closest family and friends, the feature-length documentary film makes you feel as if you’ve been invited into his innermost circle. It also sets you up for heartbreak.
Paul walker died in 2013, at age 40, in an accidental single car-crash.
We know that so many people die in tragic ways, so why does your heart break so brutally for Paul Walker? Even within the film we are reminded that death is not rare. We see confronting imagery of Haiti after the horrific 2010 earthquake – where Walker was helping people on the ground – and the unfortunate truth is that tragedy is not infrequent.
But for an hour and a half, you’re immersed in the community of people who loved someone and lost them. It opens up the most intimate ripples of tragedy and if you have even just one empathetic bone in your body, you take on their pain.
Honestly, I was weak from the get go as the film is heavy with candid footage and photos from his childhood, but that was just playing in the little leagues compared to the full-bodied blubbering that took over for the last 15 minutes.
His father is wide-eyed – with the same piercing blue eyes as his son – and shaking his head he says,
“Your son’s not supposed to go before you.”
His mother confesses,
“I just really wanted to go to sleep and not have to get up again, ‘cause I wanted to be with him.”
The heartbreak appears to be a raw wound that will never fully heal. And while their loss is personal, the grief feels universal.
I Am Paul is in cinemas across Australia for a limited time from September 21.