Wristcutters: A Love Story

Wristcutters: A Love Story

“Despondent over his breakup with Desiree, Zia slashes his wrists and goes to an afterlife peopled by suicides, a high-desert landscape dotted by old tires, burned-out cars, and abandoned sofas. He gets a job in a pizza joint. By chance, Zia learns that Desiree offed herself a few months after he did, and she's looking for him. He sets off with Eugene (an electrocuted Russian rocker) to find her, and they pick up a hitchhiker, Mikal, who's looking for the People in Charge, believing she's there by mistake. They're soon at the camp of Kneller, where casual miracles proliferate. They hear rumors of a miraculous king. Can Zia find Desiree? Then what? Where there's death there's hope.”

3.5 stars

Hmmmm, I’m still thinking about this one. It was definitely not your normal movie, but then again what is? From the beginning I was pretty into it. Tom Waits is one of my favorite musicians. So, when the main character Zia leans over and starts playing his record in the opening scene, I’m starting to have high hopes. Then, not shockingly at all based on the name of the movie, we make a hard left turn as we see Zia dead on the floor from slicing his wrists open. Then everything starts to open up and we’re introduced to this world of Limbo-esque Purgatory. But it’s not the boring Purgatory that we all think of. This world works just like the living, except that everyone is dead. And not in the creepy zombie way where people are rapidly decaying, people have jobs, live “lives”, and (for some very fucked up reason) have families that have also off-ed themselves. Because you know what they say, the family that commits mortal sin together, stays together.

But the concept was really interesting and it really stimulated the part of your brain that deals with outside thought. What if this whole other world were possible? What if it exists and we don’t know it? And the real burning question for me ‘What happens in this world if you kill yourself again?’ The director does a phenomenal job with the details. Everything from color to clothing to the most minute prop has been thought out to remind us that this world is NOT the one we live in, it is something completely different and not fully understood by anyone “living” in it.

Another big plus for this movie was Mikal (Shannyn Sossamon). If you look up “sexy” in the dictionary, there is a picture of Shannyn. Ever since ’40 Days and 40 Nights’ I’ve been in love with her look and her style of acting. She really becomes the driving force of the movie that really makes the other character’s relationships work. She embodies the naiveté and innocence that makes this bleak and desolate world bearable enough that the viewer doesn’t want to slice his own wrists (yes, I get the irony).

And if I was excited that the movie had Tom Wait’s music in it, I got even more into it when the man himself showed up to play a major role. His character Kneller runs a camp for people who have lost their way. But there is something magical about the camp because everyone keeps performing tiny miracles, but only when they aren’t trying. This is the point in the movie where I had my 10th grade English Literature class flashback. It seemed like there was real genius in this move that I was missing, like the broken headlights, and starless nights, and color changing fish were actually a motif or metaphors for something much deeper. I guess I just wasn’t open minded enough to get the true meaning, or maybe I just hadn’t smoked enough pot.
So, ¾ of the way through the movie I’m still digging it. It’s weird, but good weird. And then . . . Will Arnet shows up (think Gob from Arrested Development).

And that’s the point where it completely went off the tracks for me. Up until then things worked, especially the casting. I thought everyone fit their role very well and had just enough weird in them for the scenes to really work, but Wil Arnet’s casting as the Messiah was a body blow to this movie. Don’t get me wrong, I like the guy and find him very funny, but he is almost too well known as playing a certain type of comedic character that there was no way for me to take him seriously as ‘The Messiah’.

The funny thing is, once his scene was over, everything went back to normal (well as close to normal as this movie can get) and the movie ends with a smile . . . literally.

If you’re going to watch this movie, you have to check your morality questions about suicide at the door. The movie is not about that, and if you cloud your perception by making it about suicide you’re going to miss out on a good flick. As much as I want to give the movie 4 stars or maybe even more, the Gob scene just won’t let it be so.