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Cast & credits
Zia: Patrick Fugit
Mikal: Shannyn Sossamon
Eugene: Shea Whigham
Kneller: Tom Waits
Messiah: Will Arnett
Desiree: Leslie Bibb

Autonomous Films presents a film written and directed by Goran Dukic.
Running time: 92 minutes.

“Shannyn Sossamon casts an interesting perspective in Wristcutters: A Love Story.”

Goran Durkic writes and directs a dark comedy that advocates that lasts resorts are probably just the beginnings of a miserable afterlife. What makes a person resort to suicide? Depression? Agitation? Loneliness? Maybe they’ve lost all hope of living after something happened to them. Something that changed their lives altogether. Maybe they had nothing left to live for. But suicides are all based on a very gross assumption: That once the plug is pulled, the misery will end.

Wristcutters: A Love Story starts with a big ‘what if…’ And Director Goran Dukic brings us the ‘what if’ in a very matter-of-fact manner. Our young protagonist, Zia (Patrick Fugit, the Almost Famous kid) tidies up his room, walks straight to his bathroom and slashes his wrists. And that’s when the what if begins… What if you don’t pass on after you commit suicide? What if, rather than ending your misery, you end up transporting yourself to the most miserable place ever? A place where the colours are dull, everybody is a post-suicide a**hole, the jobs are lousy and roommates are fussy foreigners where it is so bad, that it is even physically impossible to smile. Can you think of anything that could be worse? Hell, maybe if this isn’t hell already.

Based on a short story by Etgar Keret, Wristcutters is a dark comedy that nudges on many of the issues that bring people to suicide, by exploring the deaths of all the people who end up in Wristcutter-land. I’d screen this movie at Suiciders Anonymous. But that’s me.

So Zia’s now stuck in a world where he’s more depressed than he ever was. But he likes it here because he likes depression. According to him, the times that he spent with his girlfriend Desiree (the sizzling hot Leslie Bibb) were the best in his life. But after she dumped him, the only thing he found to take her place was a deep-seeded depression. And that depression really blended well with Wristcutter-land.

Then one day, Zia meets Eugene (Shea Whigham), a gloomy, companionship-hungry Russian ex-vocalist who ‘offed’ himself by pouring beer on his guitar one day after a pub audience disregarded him. Turns out, Eugene lives with his family. Yes, they’ve all gone and offed themselves and now live together in Wristcutter-land.

Later in the day, Zia happens to meet one of his high-school buddies at a local store. And through him, he comes to know that his ex-girlfriend Desiree offed herself a short while after he did. Suddenly, Zia knew what he had to do. He had to find Desiree. Maybe she realised that she was really in love with him and couldn’t live on without him. Maybe if he found her, he could live those happy days all over again. Hence begins the journey to find Desiree. Eugene has a rusty old car that’s ready to fall apart and has headlights that have never worked. And like most cars in the real world, if you drop something while you’re seated at the front-passenger seat, you’ll never find it again.

On the road, they stop by a petite hitchhiker, Mikal (Shannyn Sossamon). Mikal, as we come to know, is in search of the ‘people in charge’, because she believes that there’s been a misunderstanding. She didn’t off herself, she says, and she wants to be sent back to life.

Together, they set off on a drive that, in the usual sense, redeems each of them. Yup, it’s a typical road movie. A journey with reason filled with a lot of shots on the road. Good music thrown in for good measure and redemption in the end. What else can you ask for?

Great performances from the lead characters, an interesting story and setting and some really good takes at suicide make this one of the most memorable indie romantic-comedies in recent times.