Review of The Skeleton Twins (2014) by Ben R — 21 Dec 2014

Not sure if this is better as 3 1/2 stars or 4, but I'll round up, since I did really enjoy, like, every part of it.

I've always loved Bill Hader and Kristen Wiig, so I was pretty much guaranteed to love this. All the humorous scenes between them were uplifting comedic gold, like the lip-synching scene and the scene in the dentist's office. I loved watching them reconnect, and they were definitely really believable. I enjoyed all the references to their earlier lives sprinkled throughout, like old friends they had.

The only thing that was a little lacking was the originality of the story. I never care much about whether a story is original, but a lot of the conflict of the movie was based on contrivance - as usual, characters keeping things from each other when it would be much easier to just be open about it. Sometimes I just wish there'd be movies with characters being completely open and honest with each other, but I suppose it's still a reliable source of conflict, and this movie wouldn't work without it. It's frustrating to see Maggie keeping her cheating (and birth control using) from her husband, but I did like that they made Luke Wilson's character entirely likable. Early in the movie, you can see why he'd be a little annoying, but instead of becoming more irritating, he becomes even more LIKABLE, which makes you feel worse for him. I really liked how the movie didn't completely excuse Maggie's behavior; it's more nuanced than having Lance be a deeply annoying guy, or something.

Other contrivances include Milo keeping his relationship with Rich from Maggie, although, again, that was remedied with some key scenes that were really emotional and well-done. I love the casual hints dropped as you realize that Maggie ratted out Milo and Rich when they were younger. Milo and Rich could've been cliche, but Rich being his teacher is an interesting twist on the married-man-cheating-with-a-man plot. Ty Burrell was great in the role, and pretty much every scene between them was hard to watch, almost tragic-feeling. Again, the film resists flatness by giving Rich an understandable point of view, and I almost felt for him as he called himself a pussy - until, of course, he asked Milo if he read his script.

A lot of scenes just felt so genuine that any cliches in the plot could easily be ignored. The comedic scenes I already described were great, but I think my favorite scene was when Maggie and Milo sat together and Milo talked about how, despite his dad's saying about how the bullies would peak in high school and Milo would grow after high school, the opposite happened. The ideas they discussed weren't particularly new, but they were thought-provoking and emotional and carried a lot of weight thanks to the well-developed characters and excellent actors.

Overall, this was a movie I really enjoyed. It isn't one of my favorite movies by any means, but it transcended indie cliches with sincerity, and it was just one of those movies that I found barely any problems with - any faults I could've had were remedied by the good, and it was the kind of movie that I couldn't possibly dislike based on the cast and script. I hope I see more movies with these two great actors.