Wristcutters: A Love Story Reviews

Director Goran Dukic’s film, adapted from a short story by co-writer Etgar Keret, is a black comedy about love in the afterlife. Zia (Patrick Fugit), is so distraught over the break-up with his girlfriend Desiree (Leslie Bibb) that it drives him to take his own life. After his suicide, he finds himself in a desolate landscape populated solely by others who have also killed themselves. It’s a sort of limbo where the residents lack the ability to smile and Zia’s main form of entertainment -- aside from obsessing over memories of his ex -- is hanging around a bar guessing how fellow patrons did themselves in. When an old friend from when Zia was alive informs him that Desiree followed in his footsteps soon after his demise, Zia sets off on a road trip into unknown to search for his lost love. Accompanied by his buddy Eugene (Shea Whigham), Zia meets an array of colorful characters, each with his or her own story of life, love and death. After picking up a mysterious hitchhiker named Mikal (Shannyn Sossamon) – who's convinced she was wrongfully sent to this dull, colorless place and pines for the world of the living -- Zia and Eugene add a new agenda to their trip: Finding find the people in charge. As Zia gets closer to tracking down Desiree, he and Mikal start to hit it off, and he's forced to wonder whether he’s found in death everything he ever really wanted out of life. Dukic’s debut feature film is pulled in two different directions: Sometimes it echoes Richard Linklater’s SLACKER (1991) as the various characters articulate their offbeat philosophies about life and love. But those moments are at odds with attempted sight gags, including one involving suicidal 10 year old and another with a strange black hole that sucks in anything dropped on the floor of the car. And at other points it seems to be a fairly conventional road comedy built around Eugene and Zia's with oddballs like Messiah (Will Arnett), a cult leader attempting to perform miracles for his followers – if only the protagonists were as interesting as the random strangers they meet on their journey! The point isn't that you can't combine disparate elements into something unique and entertaining – it's that Dukic doesn't do it successfully, and his film falls flat as a result.