Every once in a while you come across a film that completely floors you. It’s usually a title into which you go with no-to-low expectation, something you barely heard of, maybe just one actor whom you’re fond of and he’s the reason you go to see it. However once the actual film starts, and you realise boy oh boy, is this going to be one special ride…
For me ‘Wristcutters: A Love Story’ is one such film. I attended a screening of it at ‘The Raindance Film Festival’ last year and the main reason why I went to see it was the fact that Tom Waits is in it. For me anything that has Tom Waits immediately becomes must-see material, just to get a glimpse of his craziness and so I immediately ticked a huge yes next to this one.
And I’m so glad I did. ‘Wristcutters: A Love Story’ is possibly one of the freshest, most invigorating takes on the subject of suicide and love I have seen in the last ten years or so. Albeit not being a perfect film, the good points are so overwhelmingly good that you cannot help but overlook the minor problems.
‘Wristcutters: A Love Story’ opens up with Zia (Patrick Fugit) methodically cleaning his room and before we even get to the end of the opening credits, he slashes his wrists and kills himself: he has been abandoned by his girlfriend and no longer wants to live. However there is a small problem: Celestial heaven or eternal hell are not any of the options life affords suicide victims. Instead Zia, like many others before him, finds himself in Bakersfield; the final destination for those who have committed suicide. The ironical thing is that Bakersfield is just like any other dusty little town and Zia is forced to live a life just like when he was alive; ‘only a little worse’. He starts working at ‘Kamikaze Pizza’, is forced to share an apartment with a stranger and meets and befriends Eugene (Shea Whigham playing a cross between Eugene Hutz and Etgar Keret) who has managed to get stuck in this purgatory along with his whole family. When through a chance encounter Zia finds out that his beloved ex-girlfriend also committed suicide and made her way into the afterlife, he and Eugene set on a road trip to find her in Eugene’s old, dimensionally warped car, meeting along the way a beautiful but sassy hitchhiker named Mikal (Shannyn Sossamon).
And though that is the synopsis in a nut shell, let me re-assure you that ‘Wristcutters: A Love Story’ is not easy to explain. The film’s nuances, its’ complexities lie in the characters, their interactions with each other and the sad but beautiful way in which the director/writer Goran Dukic manages to imbue even the minor roles with a sense of importance.
One of the tricks that the film uses is a quick cut-away to show us the death of the character in question: far from being morbid, this is a beautifully melancholy way of enriching the part – minor side roles suddenly becoming more human through maybe no more than 30 seconds worth of material.
But ‘Wristcutters: A Love Story’ is also admirable in the way in which it does not succumb to a sense of downbeat depression. Although suicide may not be the world’s cheeriest subject matter, Goran Dukic uses it merely as a starting point: from which he explores the ideas of love, magic and belief. Suicide here is not an end to the people who have killed themselves but a rather too late understanding of what went wrong in their lives. Even the title ‘Wristcutters: A Love Story’ stress the film is a love story; something that is ideologically so much at odds with death but which with the skill of Duric and the cast somehow becomes inseparable through the course of the story.
The film also boasts a memorable soundtrack: one that is just as much fun/magical as what is depicted on the screen. The combination reminds this reviewer of the films of the Balkans especially the combination of Emir Kusturica/Goran Bregovic where a magical realism is complimented by a joyful, exuberant, beautiful, sad, crazy soundtrack: almost mimicking the emotions of life itself.
And what of Tom Waits? If I didn’t spare a few lines for him here, I’d feel guilty because he, once against, brings his own brilliant Tom Waitness to the role of Kneller. He is a dishevelled prophet, a messy messiah and the brief (at least for me) screen time he’s given, he really does create wonders. Without giving away any of the plot, his first appearance and line are so amazingly fitting that I found myself quoting it long after the movie much to the chagrin of my long-suffering friends.
And now for the sad part: ‘Wristcutters: A Love Story’ has been in limbo for nearly a year, getting distribution now. The main problem was that no one was sure how to market the movie and it is a shame that the limited release it gets and more than likely quick turnaround will mean that not as many people will get to see it as needs to. This will be the greatest shame of all for they will never know that over the thanksgiving weekend they missed one of the most magical and touching road trip of their lives. And those that get to see it? Well see you in Bakersfield.
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