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#238 - Wristcutters: A Love Story
Goran Dukić, 2006
A young man commits suicide after his girlfriend breaks up with him, only to end up in a limbo-like state populated by other suicides.
Back in the 1980s, a young John Cusack starred in Better Off Dead, a very bizarre high-school comedy where Cusack played a teenage weirdo whose response to getting dumped by his vapid social-climber girlfriend is to attempt suicide multiple times. Wristcutters: A Love Story feels like a "what if?" variation on that, where this time the heartbroken guy (Patrick Fugit) succeeds in killing himself. Of course, this just causes him more problems as he learns that not only is there an afterlife for suicides, but it basically amounts to an even more miserable version of real life where people still have to get jobs and share apartments. In addition, everyone still has scars left by their "offing" and not a single person is able to smile. Things take a turn when Fugit ends up joining his best friend (Shea Whigham) and a newly arrived mystery woman (Shannyn Sossamon) on a road trip to search for answers to all their own questions, including who exactly is in charge on this bizarre purgatory.
I should have anticipated it given the film's incredibly dark premise, but Wristcutters: A Love Story is actually an incredibly dour affair. I know it's supposed to be a black comedy and thus not that likely to generate any real belly laughs, but not even the various little quirks in the world-building or the characters are enough to provide much amusement. There are naturally plenty of casually comedic references to suicide, whether it's flashbacks to the deaths of various characters or the flat manner in which the characters tend to interact. Given the effort put into developing this drab, grey world (the petrol station where people are constantly forgetting to disconnect the pump because they keep having existential crises was an interesting gag), it's rather disappointing that it follows a very dry and predictable road-movie kind of narrative full of extremely disjointed scenes held together by the slightest of threads. The moodiness of the film's setting and characters also hinders the actors' ability to deliver decent performances, especially the lead trio. It's a shame because this film does boast some solid comedic and dramatic performers - of note are Tom Waits as the leader of a group of miracle performers, John Hawkes as his offsider, and Will Arnett as the leader of a suicide cult. Unfortunately, these side characters seem much more interesting than the lead trio and they are all introduced in the second half of the film.
Wristcutters: A Love Story scores points for having an original premise, but it loses them by wasting it on a rather uninspired romantic storyline and struggling to make the finer details pay off. The love triangle that develops between Fugit, Sossamon, and Fugit's recently-deceased ex (Leslie Bibb) is another reason I unfavourably compare this film to Better Off Dead, while the film's general grimness doesn't provide much in the way of amusement or most other emotions save for boredom. There are also some on-the-nose soundtrack choices - yes, there is a Waits song, but does a film about suicidal people really need to have "Love Will Tear Us Apart" on its soundtrack? There are good moments scattered throughout, but they tend to congregate in the film's second half and the film builds up to an ending that actually doesn't make a whole lot of sense once you stop to think about it. Despite its rather macabre subject matter, it's not all that disturbing and is ultimately just as dull as the afterlife it depicts.
Goran Dukić, 2006
A young man commits suicide after his girlfriend breaks up with him, only to end up in a limbo-like state populated by other suicides.
Back in the 1980s, a young John Cusack starred in Better Off Dead, a very bizarre high-school comedy where Cusack played a teenage weirdo whose response to getting dumped by his vapid social-climber girlfriend is to attempt suicide multiple times. Wristcutters: A Love Story feels like a "what if?" variation on that, where this time the heartbroken guy (Patrick Fugit) succeeds in killing himself. Of course, this just causes him more problems as he learns that not only is there an afterlife for suicides, but it basically amounts to an even more miserable version of real life where people still have to get jobs and share apartments. In addition, everyone still has scars left by their "offing" and not a single person is able to smile. Things take a turn when Fugit ends up joining his best friend (Shea Whigham) and a newly arrived mystery woman (Shannyn Sossamon) on a road trip to search for answers to all their own questions, including who exactly is in charge on this bizarre purgatory.
I should have anticipated it given the film's incredibly dark premise, but Wristcutters: A Love Story is actually an incredibly dour affair. I know it's supposed to be a black comedy and thus not that likely to generate any real belly laughs, but not even the various little quirks in the world-building or the characters are enough to provide much amusement. There are naturally plenty of casually comedic references to suicide, whether it's flashbacks to the deaths of various characters or the flat manner in which the characters tend to interact. Given the effort put into developing this drab, grey world (the petrol station where people are constantly forgetting to disconnect the pump because they keep having existential crises was an interesting gag), it's rather disappointing that it follows a very dry and predictable road-movie kind of narrative full of extremely disjointed scenes held together by the slightest of threads. The moodiness of the film's setting and characters also hinders the actors' ability to deliver decent performances, especially the lead trio. It's a shame because this film does boast some solid comedic and dramatic performers - of note are Tom Waits as the leader of a group of miracle performers, John Hawkes as his offsider, and Will Arnett as the leader of a suicide cult. Unfortunately, these side characters seem much more interesting than the lead trio and they are all introduced in the second half of the film.
Wristcutters: A Love Story scores points for having an original premise, but it loses them by wasting it on a rather uninspired romantic storyline and struggling to make the finer details pay off. The love triangle that develops between Fugit, Sossamon, and Fugit's recently-deceased ex (Leslie Bibb) is another reason I unfavourably compare this film to Better Off Dead, while the film's general grimness doesn't provide much in the way of amusement or most other emotions save for boredom. There are also some on-the-nose soundtrack choices - yes, there is a Waits song, but does a film about suicidal people really need to have "Love Will Tear Us Apart" on its soundtrack? There are good moments scattered throughout, but they tend to congregate in the film's second half and the film builds up to an ending that actually doesn't make a whole lot of sense once you stop to think about it. Despite its rather macabre subject matter, it's not all that disturbing and is ultimately just as dull as the afterlife it depicts.