Wristcutters: A Love Story

Review By: Andrea Tuccillo
AndreaTuccillo@TheCinemaSource.com

Suicide—it’s a taboo subject matter you don’t often see milked for dark humor. Yet the absurd tale Wristcutters: A Love Story does just that, with surprisingly entertaining results. This unique, deadpan independent comedy written and directed by Goran Dukic gives a Dante’s Inferno-like peek into the afterlife of those who committed suicide. The dead souls all drift along together in a desolate space that looks a lot like the land of the living, except it’s devoid of color and smiles.

The newest addition to this bleak life-after-death is Zia (Patrick Fugit), a young man who slits his wrists after a devastating breakup with his girlfriend. When he finds out his girlfriend also killed herself not long after he did, he decides to go on a journey to search for her. He befriends a self-electrocuted Russian musician named Eugene (Shea Whigham) whose whole family offed themselves and now live together in the after-life, and the two set out in Eugene’s beat up old car.

Along the way they pick up a hitchhiker named Mikal (Shannyn Sossamon), a girl with a penchant for vandalizing signs and the insistent idea that she ended up in this after-life by mistake. She’s on a journey of her own, looking for the “people in charge” so they can rectify the mistake and she can go home. Musician Tom Waits also pops up as the leader of a desert commune with the ability to perform “miracles”.

Zia, Eugene and Mikal all bond on this bizarre road trip. Zia and Mikal even begin to fall for each other. Their offbeat, unlikely love story adds the sentimental core to this fun, warped film. Zia eventually finds his ex-girlfriend Desiree (Leslie Bibb), though, and discovers how she really died—she killed herself out of loyalty to a cult-like leader who calls himself Messiah (Will Arnett, in a hilarious cameo). He realizes that Desiree may not have been worth it after all, but is it too late?

The film plays on the whole suicide theme with a morbid matter-of-factness. A flashback is provided for each new character you meet, giving the audience a glimpse of how exactly he or she died. The characters are obviously messed up, but the movie isn’t bleak.

Wristcutters: A Love Story is a dark comedy that morphs into a sweet romance. Laughs come when you least expect it and the concept is ingeniously creative. Finding your true love after you die? Now that’s original…in a twisted sort of way.

Movie Grade: B

Synopsis:

From the moment Zia (Patrick Fugit) cuts his wrists and enters a bizarre afterlife reserved for suicides, this film becomes a strangely uplifting, darkly comic tale about a journey through the hereafter. This is a world where everyone still bears the scars earned from the manner in which they "offed" while the everyday reality is a twisted mirror image of our own mortal world.

When Zia begins his search for his long lost love, he encounters a variety of memorable individuals, ...