'Super/Man' review: Christopher Reeve's heroic story 

WHAT IT'S ABOUT The documentary "Super/Man: The Christopher Reeve Story" presents a biographical picture of the "Superman" actor and activist for people with disabilities. It uses the 1995 equestrian accident that left him paralyzed as the framing device for understanding who he was and why his impact is still being felt today.

Directors Ian Bonhôte and Peter Ettedgui construct this portrayal through home movies from before and after the accident, Reeve's own reflections on finding a way forward, and in-depth contemporary interviews with his three children and friends.

These include everyone from movie stars like Glenn Close and Whoopi Goldberg to Brooke Ellison, the late Stony Brook University bioethicist. Reeve directed the 2004 movie "The Brooke Ellison Story" about Ellison, who was the first quadriplegic person to graduate from Harvard.

MY SAY This is the story of a man whose entire life changed irrevocably, in an instant. A rider, a skier, a sailor, an actor, who at the age of 42 suddenly had to bid farewell to so much.

It is profoundly sad: Reeve died in October 2004 and his wife, Dana, a nonsmoker, died of lung cancer about 17 months later.

But you get the sense that neither of them would have wanted a movie to dwell on the tragedy. And the filmmakers don't.

Instead, they recognize an essential, defining quality: Above all, this is a love story.

The filmmakers let Reeve narrate his own experience for us, and he tells us about how Dana saved him right after the accident, with seven simple words: "You're still you and I love you."

That moment, and the depiction of all that surrounded it, captures the essence of why Reeve's story matters as much as it does. 

Love is the light that illuminates the darkness, and it's shown in many different ways throughout this movie. There are the scenes that reveal Dana's profound devotion and commitment to her husband and to the cause of making a better world, even as she struggles herself to cope with the heaviness.

There's the portrayal of the wider family rallying for Reeve and lifting him out of his distress: not only his children, but his friend and Juilliard roommate Robin Williams, and so many others.

And then, finally, there's Reeve himself, committed to make something positive out of it all: to get out of bed and back out into the world, and to advocate for improving the lives of those with spinal cord injuries through what would eventually become the Christopher & Dana Reeve Foundation.

Reeve's Superman could soar through the air and defeat the likes of Lex Luthor. But that's nothing compared to this: the triumph of love and hope over sorrow and despair, and the resolve to do all that you can to find something good and meaningful out of your lowest moment.

That's how you save the world.

BOTTOM LINE It's hard to imagine a better movie about Christopher Reeve.