The Skeleton Twins

source: The Skeleton Twins

What a premise for a movie that fails on all levels. Don't feel you can overlook the mental illnesses this movie exploits by having a good laugh or two - WRONG there are NO laughs, not a one. What a depressing and dark movie. One might even over look the darkness if the acting wasn't so amateurish, juvenile and third rate. That goes for all the actors. What a pathetic waste of good film stock or 0's and 1's if they went direct to digital. There is no common cohesive thread that binds this story together so it drifts like so much vapor for 2 hours. If you have a penchant for watching contrived bad people behaving badly, have at it. The "Skeleton Twins" are for you.

'The Skeleton Twins' offers emotional depth, but a half-baked Screenplay, takes away its glory in totality. But, the performances are good! 'The Skeleton Twins' Synopsis: Having both coincidentally cheated death on the same day, estranged twins reunite with the possibility of mending their relationship. 'The Skeleton Twins' begins beautifully, with the bitterness between its sibling protagonists, working well. The sub-plots are the problem here. The track involving an ex-flame is bland, while the secret-affair angle also offers nothing new. Its the main plot, which is filled with moments of true humor & emotions. Craig Johnson & Mark Heyman's Screenplay has potential, but weak sub-plots leave you disappointed. Craig Johnson's Direcion is nicely done. Cinematography is average. Editing isn't great, either. 'The Skeleton Twins' biggest strength lies in its performances. Kristen Wiig is effective, delivering a performance of pure pain. Bill Hader is competent, as well, enacting a difficult part with flourish. And Luke Wilson steals the show. He's genius in here. On the whole, 'The Skeleton Twins' is certainly watchable, but not very memorable.

The worst thing you can do before you write your own review is to check what other people's opinions are. I just did, and I now feel like I am the only person who was not swept off his feet by this movie. The Skeleton twins depicts the story of two twins who have not seen each other in ten years, and who find themselves trying to take their lives at the exact same moment in time. Both of them manage to cheat death and that's what gives them a chance to reunite again. The outset is actually quite original, and I couldn't help but think I was in for something different. On top of that (normally the harshest man when it comes to evaluating actors), I really felt that Bill Hader and Kristen Wiig had been perfectly chosen. Both have this ordinary look about them that makes movies like this a bit more believable, even the story starts off on a surrealistic note. So, as a viewer, my initial impressions could not be better. Unfortunately, as the movie went on, I couldn't help but feel a little deflated and less and less concerned about the fate of our two protagonists. The nice balance between drama and comedy made for some decent highs but it was often followed by similar moments of outright boredom, and generally speaking the movie just lacked substance. I could try to find a thousand different ways of saying how I felt about this movie, but I regret to inform that I am a little deflated again, and honestly nothing will describe what I think about this movie better than the following onomatopoeia: Meh!

The Skeleton Twins is an impressive comedy / drama from director Craig Johnson and starring Saturday Night Live regulars Kristen Wiig and Bill Hader. It tells the story of two twins who are reunited through an attempted suicide, having not spoken for 10 years. The story explores love, loss, and how, after growing up in a broken home, we cope with the challenges of adulthood in the modern world. First and foremost, the casting was superb, with brilliant comedic performances from Wiig and Hader, who also bring great depth to their characters. Luke Wilson is also fantastic as the fantasy-football playing jock husband. There are some really great, very funny moments; the chemistry of the two leads really carries the film. There were one or two flaws to the story, but they are few and far between. And although the ending was bit too "Hollywood" and predictable, the charm of the story allows some forgiveness here, and I would definitely recommend this film.

The film attempts to tackle themes such as suicide, marriage, closet gays and family dynamics. In the end there is surprisingly little meaning, other than it's good to have relatives' support in hard times. There are glimpses of interest, such as the twins' mother Judy being a hopeless parent who couldn't make it to Maggie's wedding and who the twins don't bother to tell about Milo's suicide attempt because they know her too well -- she wouldn't be supportive or even care. Milo's former teacher Rich is a convincing character as someone who is determined not to come out publicly as gay, and who ultimately doesn't care about Milo, despite being happy to sleep with him. As Maggie's husband, Luke Wilson does well as a cheerful, loving soul who nevertheless Maggie is not satisfied with. I feel the characters too readily turn to suicide as a solution to their problems. Is that something that should be portrayed as an option in life? It doesn't make sense that late in the film, Maggie makes Milo promise not to attempt suicide -- but then she herself attempts suicide. So to me this film is more of an indie character study. Not brilliant, but not a bad film. I think it tries to hard to be deep and meaningful. It throws a lot of ideas up on screen in the hope something will stick, but I wasn't moved by this picture.

I never expected this movie to be so depressing. Why Kristen Wig and Bill Hadar accepted to play such dark roles is incomprehensible. They are talented comedians and yes they did act well in this film, however, I would never have expected to watch them play such morose roles which I feel did not suit them at all. I would never recommend this film to anyone - especially if you are searching for a COMEDY! Kristen Wig had categorized this film as a "sweet drama" - I did not find this story to be sweet in the least. How can a story be sweet about depressed siblings wanting to commit suicide? Kristen, Bill, please find roles that really bring out your talented comedic sides! After watching this film, I need to see something that will make me laugh.

The movie starts with fraternal twins Twinkie and Bozo (my attempt to offset this film's humor anti-matter) deciding to end it all. Their lives don't work and they've tried nothing and they're all out of ideas, so, death seems like the thing to do. And probably there's nothing good on TV either. please please please let these whining, unfunny, unself-aware pointless wastes of oxygen kill themselves! OMG! after seeing this uninspired, torpid trip through a metaphorical Mohave desert of middle class American mental * and mores, I UNDERSTOOD WHY PEOPLE WANT TO JOIN A RADICAL Islamic CULTS AND GO ALL JIHAD ON OUR ASSES! If this was written by a 13 year old whose only reading material was sub-par 'Twilight' rip offs, and directed by the goth reincarnation of Sylvia Plath then, OK, I would understand. it would still suck, but I would understand why. Sadly it wasn't and so, consequently, IT JUST PLAIN SUCKS!

Kristen Wiig and Bill Hader are such comedy wunderkinds that a dramatic role sounds like a waste. We can picture Wiig screwing around a room with the pizazz of Carol Burnett, with Hader, alongside her, spitting out wicked lines in a wacky voice. Though The Skeleton Twins has a handful of funny moments, it is first and foremost a gloomy drama; we may all love Wiig and Hader's antics on Saturday Night Live, but they are blessed with some serious acting talent. It's the Double Indemnity to their Ball of Fire, the War and Peace to their Sabrina. Twins Maggie (Wiig) and Milo (Hader) have been estranged for 10 years. They're reacquainted, however, when Maggie receives a call from an unknown number; she is informed that Milo has attempted suicide. In one hand, she holds the phone. In the other is a smattering of pills. It's a coincidence that seems as though God set it up just for them. Maggie immediately invites Milo to stay with her and her picture perfect husband, Lance (Luke Wilson), in their suburban New York home; but just as they begin to reconnect, they are forced to face their innermost demons. Milo has been living in Los Angeles for a decade, desperate to become a famous actor. He's seen little success, his life marred with constant disappointment. Maggie knows that she has married a good man, but she is bored with her comfortable, predictable marriage; she's partaken in several affairs and has purposely destroyed any chances of having a baby, something Lance dreams of. The people in The Skeleton Twins aren't unstable in a melodramatic fashion. They are disappointed with their lives, ready to do something drastic just to inject meaning into their veins. Milo thought he'd be the bullied outsider that could, one day, come to a class reunion and laugh at his balding, middling tormentors. Maggie thought that she could live in domestic bliss and stay within that bliss. But it doesn't happen. The film explores several relationships, going back and forth between Milo and Maggie, Milo and his ex-lover, Rich (Ty Burrell), who destroyed his teenage years, and the siblings and their flighty mother (Joanna Gleason). The conversations glide over and under sheer wit and blood- letting, the characters are written with hundreds of layers. They hit close to home, making us question our own self-confidence and achievements. But it's one of those films in which the biggest successes come from the actors. If they didn't have chemistry, The Skeleton Twins would never work. Yet the emotional bonds (good or bad) between the actors in the film are so instantaneously genuine that there is a fluidity that makes the anguish all the more real. The laughs are quick, but they are consistently overtaken by the somber sequences that follow them. Because, in real life, a joke can be thrown off a roof if you open up an old wound. Read more reviews at petersonreviews.com

There was potential in the themes and statements that this film wanted to touch on, pedophile-victim relationships, suicide, monogamy, family relations, but I think that the "thematic bag" of this film was filled a little too high for these filmmakers to be able to have a profound statement about any of them. Visualize setting up all of the pins and knocking down none of them... Or maybe it was that the director and the editors directed and cut the film in such a forced way to make the film dip into far too many "indie" tropes, like the bonding over a duet of a song. Yikes. I cringed. The flashbacks of them as children seemed like superficial indie tropes too. Maggie as a child swimming in a pool had nothing to do with her scuba diving or suicidal thoughts of drowning herself, so why were they in the movie?? Was it to connect visceral images of childhood to these suicidal protagonists to further our empathy for them? Seemed like a desperate and shallow move or something, I dunno. I also, felt that the soundtrack and the way it was used was just so typically, "indieeeeee". Or the problem could have been in the writing! The halloween scene where the twins are drinking beers reminiscing about their childhood just drags on. The content of their conversation alienated me because there was literally nothing to relate to in what they were talking. It was all about these random people from their childhood and these random stories about those people that had nothing to do with the plot at all. It may come off as realism to some, but I just found it to be shallow writing :( The acting was surprisingly moving from these two, though. I wanted to like the film because of Kristen and Bill, but I just don't think the writing or direction held up their end. Definitely a few laughs to be had but nothing side splitting. This is why I had to give the film a 5 out of 10.