Review of Wristcutters: A Love Story (2007) by Steve P — 03 Feb 2016

NOTE: This film was recommended to me by Glen Malec for "Steve Pulaski Sees It.".

One of the recurring theological debates is where a person who commits suicide is destined to spend eternity; the concept of a person killing themselves has disrupted the dichotomous notion that good people have their eternal souls rest in heaven whilst bad people have their eternal souls rest in hell. In a Christlike sense, a suicidal soul should still go to heaven if they found themselves victim to the pressures of life, or worse, an unrelenting mental illness. In a sense pertaining more towards the Christian doctrine, however, somebody who commits suicide should perhaps go to hell, for their action has made it so they can no longer serve God, in addition to disrupting the sanctity and safety of their body, the temple of God.

In Wristcutters: A Love Story, however, people who commit suicide are sent to what is essentially purgatory. It looks largely the same as the real-world, only far bleaker and everyone lacks the ability to smile or even grin and no stars decorate the night sky. This is where we, the audience, find ourselves following Zia's (Patrick Fugit) successful suicide triggered by the recent breakup with his girlfriend. Zia finds himself more miserable in this world than he was in the previous, as he slogs away each and every day with his roommate Eugene (Shea Whigham), a hasbeen rockstar who killed himself by pouring a beer onto an electric guitar.

One day, Zia learns that his ex-girlfriend Desiree (Leslie Bibb) has killed himself, which motivates both him and Eugene to take a road-trip across this wasteland to find her. Along the way, they pick up a hitchhiker named Mikal (Shannyn Sossamon), who has just found herself in this world and is searching for the "people in charge" in order to be dealt another hand at life.

Wristcutters has the potential to be a seriously downtrodden film, encapsulated in its own misery so deeply that it becomes an unenjoyable experience. It's the kind of material that treads dangerous waters, where if it goes much deeper it risks being too caustic or offensive, but if it lies dormant and sticks to safer material, it risks being too shallow. Early scenes showing Zia's uneventful daily life are some of the most interesting up until he meets Mikal, for we see the real sadness that seems to simply plague him. He claims he thinks more about Desiree now that he has killed himself, and dictates to us through narration that he can just imagine her distraught, but finding solace in cute, romantic sex with other men. That thought eats at him, and writer/director Goran Duki? puts us in the position of a true voyeur; one who witnesses something troubling occurring but is ill-equipped to do anything about it.

Patrick Fugit does a nice job as the lead here, playing disconnected and completely unmotivated to do anything. Also very much an engaging presence is Shannyn Sossamon, who comes in just at the right time in the film to prevent it from being a mopey slog. The issue with Wristcutters is despite two very talented performers, it never officially crosses over from being an initially miserable slog to a bleakly funny dark comedy. The film is filled with deadpan, as one would expect, but its joke are never too funny or enlightening to really find amusing, and some frustration builds as the purgatory these characters inhabit goes overlooked in favor of more alone time with the characters.

This is the kind of material that really would've benefited from the hand of Mike Judge, who has already proven himself to be a master of satirical comedy, taking jabs at workplace drudgery, eco-friendly liberal conventions, and shallow consumerism. The idea of suicide isn't the first concept for a comedy, but like all ideas, an appropriate approach and direction is always possible to make humor out of the darkest subject. Duki? is so close to striking gold with Wristcutters, however, he seems to be perpetually digging around it as he tries to find something enlightening or relevant to say.

Starring: Patrick Fugit, Shannyn Sossamon, Shea Whigham, Leslie Bibb, and Tom Waits. Directed by Goran Duki?.