Review: ‘Wristcutters, A Love Story’ on DVD

Travis:

Wristcutters: A Love Story is director Goran Dukic‘s first feature film. Patrick Fugit plays Zia, a depressed young man who decides to “off” himself despite his love for Desiree, played by Leslie Bibb. After doing so, Zia finds himself existing in an alternate Earth where “everything is the same, only worse” but is populated completely by people who’ve “offed” themselves. He holds down a job as a pizza boy at Kamikaze Pizza, but leaves that all behind once he learns that Desiree had “offed” herself one month after he cut his wrists. Zia sets out to find Desiree with his friend Eugene (Shea Whigham), a Russian rock musician who electrocuted himself on stage. During his journey, Zia meets the attractive Mikal (Shannyn Sossamon) who claims to be there by mistake. Mikal joins their journey until they meet Kneller (Tom Waits) who runs a sort of hippie camp where people perform “small miracles.”

As this character-driven story unfolds, Zia and Mikal are both searching for something, but it appears what they both are destined to find is each other. At first, Wristcutters may seem just a tad slow, but stick with with it because this romantic sci-fi/comedy quickly grows on you. The landscapes are simple but eerily effective at conveying an alternate Earth populated by suicide victims. Wristcutters has a wonderful script and develops characters that make us laugh and are easy to empathize with. Mikal is wonderful to watch, both in her beauty and in her performance. I especially enjoyed Whigham’s performance as Eugene, who serves as Zia’s road trip buddy who drives a beat-up clunker with broken headlights and a small black hole under the passenger seat. [Trust me, it makes sense once you see the movie.] Wristcutters is a well-made, thoughtful film that resonates long after its viewed. There are few scenes from the movie that I know will stick with me for a long time.

(4 out of 5)

Zac:

Great title, I will definitely give it that. Unfortunately the movie couldn’t live up to the great title that the movie hopes to be. Now, the movie isn’t by any means bad. It just sits in limbo, along with the characters in this unknown universe in the film, almost becoming pretty good but never really ascending to that greater level.
Patrick Fugit (of Almost Famous fame) stars as Zia who kills himself in the opening scene over a broken heart and finds himself in this limbo land for “off-ers”. Fugit does an admirable job most of the movie, but sometimes he mumbles and is just really weird and awkward and it doesn’t quite fit the tone of this weird movie. Anyways, Zia becomes a sort of adoptive son to the family of Eugene, all of his family members have killed themselves and live together in limbo, and they go about their everyday lives of drinking, working dead end jobs, not smiling, and griping over the things they lost in their lives.
Hope and a bit of excitement fills Zia when he finds out his girlfriend who he offed himself over has know offed herself over the loss of him. Love must conquer all, so Zia sets out with Eugene to find her outside of the “city.” The movie then divulges into a road movie through the wastelands and desert of this limbo universe and we encounter some interesting characters along the way.
Shea Whigham plays Eugene to great effect and plays an affective buddy to Zia as they drive around in there station wagon on their adventure. Shannyn Sossamon plays Mikal who they pick up hitchhiking as she tries to find the people in charge (PIC) so she can have her case heard; she isn’t supposed to be here. The three of them travel along finding weird destinations, a bit of confrontations, but ultimately find Tom Waits as Kneller who is fantastic.
The movie is full of great little bits through out, a great cameo at the end, and a very original premise, but it never knows if it wants to be really funny or if it’s a dramady; we really don’t know what it’s supposed to be. The movie shines brightest when it flashes to the how everyone offed themselves and these are usually best jokes the movie. What hurts it the most is that it is constantly in limbo of losing our interest but usually saves itself at the last minute.
Overall it is an admirable effort but feels like it wishes and wants to be more than it is. Maybe with a bigger budget it could have been, then again maybe not. A quirky, different, little movie that is worth a rental if you’re up for something out of the ordinary.

(3.25 razors out of 5)

[rating: 3.5/5]

DVD Features:

• Audio Commentary with Goran Dukic, Patrick Fugit, Mikel Lazarez, and Tatiana Kelly
• Making the Final Cut: The Wristcutters Journey
• Deleted Scenes
• Director’s Storyboard Look-In
• Patrick Fugit’s On-Set Photos