Review by Peter Syslo
I've seen the trailer for WRISTCUTTERS: A LOVE STORY (2006) on various DVDs and I was very eager to see it. The film seemed like that quirky type of black comedy which would be a “good watch”. Usually, I see or hear a little bit of buzz about certain films, but I honestly haven't heard much about this one. But, I do like that “lack of buzz”, sometimes. As a film buff, I enjoy cases like this, because I feel like I am experiencing a film that is “uncharted territory”. I'm admittedly a bargain hunter and this film gave me that same sort of feeling of finding treasure in another person's trash (that's no judgment of the film, it's just a metaphor to describe my feelings). The film pretty much lived up to my expectations; it is not technically a horror film, but I thought that the dark comedy and dark subject matter (suicide, depression) lent itself to being a pertinent review, for the site. It's kind of a horror movie, in a roundabout way.
WRISTCUTTERS is directed by Goran Dukic and is written by Etgar Keret and Dukic. The film stars Patrick Fugit, Shea Whigham, Shannyn Sossamon, Will Arnet, and Leslie Bibb.
The film is about a young man, Zia (Fugit), whose girlfriend left him. Feeling the bleakness of his existence, Zia commits suicide by cutting his wrists. To his dismay, he wakes up in a life that is even more bleak and depressing than his former life. It's like he is in a type of purgatory that is specifically made for people who have committed suicide. One person that he meets is a Russian immigrant, Eugene (Whigham), who died by electrocuting himself with his electric guitar (I loved that scene). The two become friends and when Zia realizes that his ex-girlfriend committed suicide, he and Eugene go on a road-trip to find her. Along the way, they pick up a beautiful girl, Mikal (Sossamon), who accidentally killed herself by a heroin overdose. It turns out that she wants to “talk to the people in charge” about getting back to her old life. So, the three travel across the purgatory landscape, searching for answers. They all find out more than they wanted to and the story does end with a twist, which seems to make everything “right with the world”.
I liked WRISTCUTTERS. I thought that it was a very original film, with some very original ideas about death and life. If you like black humor, then you will definitely appreciate the humorous nature of the film. It's not utterly tasteless humor, but it isn't really for the uptight either. It simply has that correct amount of humor which is a perfect balance for the dark subject matter. Regarding the subject matter, one could argue that the film is like WHAT DREAMS MAY COME, dealing with the afterlife and such, but WRISTCUTTERS is better; it is not “full of itself” like WHAT DREAMS was. WRISTCUTTERS is dark and can be somewhat depressing, but it is done in a way that it is not an assault on the viewer and it does have a hint of warmth to it. What we have is a funny, satirical vision of life/death and it does have that age-old message of learning to appreciate the good things in life.
Overall, I thought that the film was well-constructed and was well-written, but I thought that it started to unravel a bit, in the last 30 minutes of the film. The part where the three go to see “Messiah” perform a miracle (in fact, the whole aspect of the miracles) just seemed a little “thin” to me. I know that this is a fantasy type of film, but that portion of it just didn't fit well with the rest of the film. However, I enjoyed the “road picture” aspect of it and the initial scenes of how people committed suicide were very funny. The most humorous portion, to me, was Eugene's story about how he and everyone in his family committed suicide. It's a riot when his ten year-old brother wanted to commit suicide after being on the losing team in a sporting match. Very satirical and very funny depictions of how much people worry about unimportant things. Also, I loved how Eugene had a “black hole” under his passenger car seat – he lost several pairs of sunglasses in it, throughout the film and the “black hole” was used to great comedic effect. It didn't make a lot of sense, but, again, it was very funny. The above reasons are why I think that Shea Whigham was the standout actor in this film (he was also recently in the good film, SPLINTER). This guy is very entertaining and he is a very good actor. Every actor was very good in this film (although, Will Arnet was underused). Also noteworthy performances were Fugit's sullen Zia and Sossamon's beautiful and accessible Mikal. She is always interesting to watch and she is one of those actresses that can enhance a whole scene with just her eyes.
Gnawing through the flesh: WRISTCUTTERS was a good film. My attention started to waver during the last 1/3 of the film, but overall, it was very well-done. The humor was spot-on, the acting was very good, and the story was pretty imaginative. I would have liked to have seen a bit more “passion”, regarding the love aspect, but then again I do realize that emotions were blunted in that purgatory/afterlife. It was just that I didn't feel that the two were truly in love – I needed a little more convincing of that. But, the film was very enjoyable and it is definitely worth seeing for the satire and the relationship aspects of it (it is very accurate about that – it is kind of a dating movie for guys, like SWINGERS or HIGH FIDELITY). In short, if you like black comedies or if you enjoy high-concept things like BEING JOHN MALKOVICH, then you might enjoy WRISTCUTTERS. I give it a 7/10.