Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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33 of 33 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Amor e morte, January 17, 2008
Most romantic comedies take place in... you know, the world of the living. They rarely star dead people. And not suicides, either.
But "Wristcutters: A Love Story" is not going to be tied down by that. This delicious, dark little cult film is about people who have committed suicide, and are now stuck in a limbo zone that is just like the living world, but less appealing. It's also dark, funny and poignant -- everything you want in a very original little indie movie.
Because of a breakup, Zia (Patrick Fugit) has decided that life is no longer worth living. He cleans his house, slits his wrists -- and finds himself in a strange twilight-zone with no sunshine, smiles, or appetizing food, and entirely populated by suicides -- think a Midwestern small town, but more depressing. He eventually gets a job, a nasty roommate, and befriends Eugene (Shea Whigham) a likably bombastic Russian rocker.
But then Zia learns from a new suicide that his girlfriend, Desiree (Leslie Bibb) has also offed herself. So he and Eugene bundle into Eugene's horrible old car, and start a road trip to find her -- picking up the pretty, feisty Mikal (Shannyn Sossamon), who says she's been placed there mistakenly. The odd trio rattles through this suicide world, until they stumble across a strange camp in the wilderness...
I first heard about "Wristcutters" a long while ago, on myspace -- but in the months that followed, it just sort of floated in a limbo of its own. Pretty frustrating, but Goran Dukic actually makes it worth waiting for -- it's a quirky and dark indie comedy, a tragedy, and a love story all in one.
As you can probably guess, the movie's main message is that you should live a life worth enjoying, and love someone worth loving. Yeah, the core of it is a guy who loses the girl, kills himself, tries to regain the girl, and falls in love with the worthier choice -- all while wondering if love is still possible for those whose hearts have stopped.
But that potentially soppy message is wrapped up in clever little quirks in Wristcutterville (Zia works at "Kamikaze Pizza") or the various deaths of the people who live there (Eugene electrocuted himself to get the crowd to pay attention). It feels pleasantly, wistfully warped -- both with macabre humour (the hole-in-the-head cop) and delicious dialogue ("I'm not going out tonight. It just makes me depressed." "So, what you gonna do? Kill yourself?").
And you gotta admit, this postmodern Purgatorio is an interesting concept -- it's portrayed with a sort of low-budget magical realism. Suicide wounds, pale faces, bleak landscape, and "Love Will Tear Us Apart" is a popular tune. It's pretty fitting that the place for those who have given up hope is a place where hope and joy are nonexistant.
It also has a very pleasant, poignant ending -- yeah, it seems like a bit of a cop-out, but somehow by the time we got there, I didn't mind. It ties in with the lesson of the movie, and the poignant little love between Zia and Mikal.
Fugit is a likably confused, sweet character who is just a bit dense, since it takes him awhile to figure out what a great, funny girl Mikal is. And Whigham -- whose character was partly based on Gogol Bordello's Eugene Hutz -- rules all the scenes he's in, as one of the few suicides who still has his vitality, libido and humour intact ("Everyone knows that man in back does not have c**k").
Sad, quirky and poignant, "Wristcutters: A Love Story" is an offbeat love/road-trip movie in the land of suicides -- it's a brilliantly warped little cult movie, and definitely worth seeing.
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13 of 16 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A Unique Uplifting Dark Comedy, July 9, 2007
This film goes far beyond the short story "Neller's Happy Campers" by Etgar Keret found in The Bus Driver Who Wanted To Be God & Other Stories. It is about the weird world that suicides go to. (A world just like this one only worse).
You will see some strange things on the journey you take in this film with the characters.
The acting is excellent.
The soundtrack ranges from the otherworldly to Eskimo throat singing. (You've got to hear it)
It is a very dark comedy but has a surprisingly light touch and a goofy feel-good style. It is hard to describe. It is like "Crossroads" meets "Road Warrior" but everybody is already dead.
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7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Wristcutters: A Razor-Sharp Comedy about Suicide., March 26, 2008
If there were an Academy Award for Best Movie Title, this intriguing film would have taken that Award in 2007. It won me over with its opening scene and never lost me. Wristcutters: A Love Story is a 2006 romantic comedy written and directed by Goran Dukic, starring Patrick Fugit, Shannyn Sossamon, and Tom Waits. (Fugit is best known for his performance in the Cameron Crowe film Almost Famous.) Based on Etgar Keret's short story, "Kneller's Happy Campers," the film is set in a desolate afterlife reserved for people who have committed suicide. After Zia (Fugit) kills himself by cutting his wrists, he finds himself in an afterlife not much different than his former life, only slightly drearier and devoid of any happiness. (Smiling is prohibited, and there are "No Smoking" signs posted everywhere in the afterlife.) Dukic's depiction of the afterlife looks a lot like southern Arizona, and is inhabited by others who have also committed suicide: a Russian family, all of whom are suicide victims; Zia's ex-girlfriend Desiree (Leslie Bibb); and a cute hitchhiker Mikal (Shannyn Sossamon). Bored inhabitants of the afterlife take turns guessing how others "offed" themselves. For something to do, Zia decides to take a road trip through the afterlife in search of love (namely, Desiree), and he meets an undercover angel, Kneller (Tom Waits), along the way. Despite its predictable ending, this otherwise dark comedy (featuring an infectious soundtrack by Gogol Bordello) is equally witty and bittersweet, a three-star movie to which I've given an extra star for its razor-sharp originality. This film truly deserves a cult following.
G. Merritt
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