In Case You Missed It Monday… ‘Wilbur Wants to Kill Himself’

The number of well-distributed films coming out of Scotland seems disproportionately low, so I felt like taking one of my more recent favorites that’s slipped under the radar and talking it up a bit. ‘Wilbur Wants to Kill Himself’ is a dark comedy with a brooding and slightly depressing undertone which is as . In fact, the comedic element to the film is slow subtle and understated, I find it difficult to even classify it technically as a comedy in the most traditional definition of the genre.

‘Wilbur Wants to Kill Himself’ tells the story of Wilbur [obviously] who is sort of depressed, but it doesn’t really show that clearly in his character. A more appropriately descriptive way to explain Wilbur (played by Jamie Sives) would be to say he is terminally apathetic and is obsessed with ending his life as a way to escape what he sees as a mundane and purposeless life. Wilbur makes repeated efforts to bring his life to a halt, a few of which bring him extremely close to success and one even is a success, at least for a brief moment, having technically been dead for a short spurt before being resuscitated.

Wilbur’s brother Harbour (played by Adrian Rawlins) is a kind and caring man who now runs their recently deceased father’s book shop. Aside from tending to the endless number of books, Harbour spends a majority of his remaining time caring for and keeping an eye on his brother Wilbur, who has a tendency to concoct a new method for attempting suicide whenever he is left alone. Wilbur’s tried popping pills, drowning, hanging and even considered leaping off a tall building, but his methods usually fall within the confines of less painful, more peaceful techniques.

The story shifts and Wilbur’s life begins to change course once he meets Alice, a petite Scottish waif with a cute and mousy little voice and her daughter. Alice (played by Shirley Henderson) discovers Wilbur hanging in a make-shift noose in the backroom of the book shop she visited to sell some old books. After assisting Wilbur down, Alice meets Harbour and in time leads to their getting married. What evolves is an intimate love triangle between Alice, Harbour and Wilbur, one which benefits all three parties but is an odd and often uncomfortable arrangement.

Alice dearly loves Harbour, but her love for him is mostly one of friendship and deep emotional connection, whereas she finds herself more physically attracted and lustful for his brother Wilbur. This becomes clearly apparent as Harbour learns he is dying from pancreatic cancer, but cannot find the will and strength to tell his family the distressing news. Harbour realizes that his death would bring undue hardship upon Alice and her daughter and would leave the burden and keeping watch on Wilbur to Alice as well.

Wilbur makes a few attempts at having a “girlfriend” which all result in awkwardness and ultimate failure. These attempts are a way of Wilbur making an effort to be “normal” and keep himself occupied outside of his obsession with suicide. These attempts end being being little more than anti-romantic and humorous bits of appropriately placed comic relief. One of the best examples of this dynamic of the film appears in a scene where Wilbur opens himself up to the advances of a nurse at the hospital and she proceeds to lick his ear during their brief moment of awkward intimacy, resulting in Wilbur’s blunt response…

WILBUR: “You licked my ear. I’d have bought a dog if I wanted my ear licked.”

The supporting cast is highlighted by Horst, a psychologist that runs the suicide support group that Wilbur reluctantly attends at the hospital and who ends up becoming a supportive figure for Harbour once he realizes the severity of his cancer. Horst, played by Mads Mikkelsen (Le Chiffre in ‘Quantum of Solace’), serves to help move the dramatic development of the story along, providing an impartial reality check for the characters as they stumble through this turbulent chapter of their lives.

In the end, things sort of work out favorably for Wilbur and Alice, despite the unfortunate path by which their lives together becomes possible. Death plays a major role in the story. Wilbur and Harbour’s mother died when they were still very young and the way in which their mother died plays a significant role in understanding why Wilbur is the way he is, which is eluded to in the film but not directly explained as the the cause of his suicidal personality. Their father passes away at the beginning of the film, causing Wilbur to slip further into his troublesome habits while Harbour is less able to keep Wilbur under his wing due to the needs of the book shop. Even Alice is familiar with death, working as a nurse, but finds herself less comfortable with the concept, finding herself stressed by a job surrounding her with death.

‘Wilbur Wants to Kill Himself’ is co-written and directed by Lone Scherfig, a female Danish filmmaker best known in the states for her 2000 film ‘Italian for Beginners’. The movie has been nominated for twenty different awards and has won eleven of them. Released theatrically in the US by THINKFilm, ‘Wilbur’ received US DVD distribution through Sundance. As such, it’s not the most widely distributed film but can be found with relative ease online or at Blockbuster. The US version of ‘Wilbur Wants to Kill Himself’ is rated “R” and has a running time of 109 minutes.