SUNDANCE 2006: wristcutters

As the title would imply, the film begins with Zia (Patrick Fugit) cutting his wrists, killing himself. The title of this film is WRISTCUTTERS: A LOVE STORY though, and it really is a love story. A love story with an unconventional premise.

Once Zia kills himself, he enters a purgatory of sorts. This seemingly normal town is populated by people who have killed them selves in various ways. Everyone who is met is asked the same question… “How did you off yourself?” While in this place, Zia meets a charming and charismatic friend, Eugene (Shea Whigham), and a woman who might be there by mistake, Mikal (Shannyn Sossamon). When Zia finds out that his ex-girlfriend Desiree (the reason he killed himself) had killed herself a month after him, he and Eugene go in search of her. When Mikal is looking for the people in charge so that she can get out of there and accompanies the two friends on their quest.

The world that they encounter is bizarre and has a charm that makes this film unique from others I have seen. While it is cute, WRISTCUTTERS does not totally work for me. The pace is slow, dragging in the middle, and some of the attempts at drama don’t fully pay off. I won’t get into the quirks and the obstacles that these three go through because that is the fun of the film.

WRISTCUTTERS is a cute movie that might possibly attain a cult status over the years. The crowd reaction was better than I expected. It seemed to be one of the crowd favorites. I thought it was on the short list for the audience award. In my mind, it was between this and STAY, but as I will get into in another review, I was wrong.

A love story for a new generation.