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(More customer reviews)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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