A Movie in Review: The Skeleton Twins

I chatted about seeing Gone Girl a couple weeks ago, and I actually saw another movie recently that I liked even more: The Skeleton Twins.

I was drawn to the movie for a few reasons:

1. I'm a twin (duh!)
2. I like movies with witty dialogue, and I knew banter between Kristen Wiig and Bill Hader could deliver. SNL people for the win!
3. It also stars Luke Wilson. I'll always love him based on nothing but Legally Blonde. 
4. It seemed dark, but funny.

So, we went to see it during our vacation to California! Overall, I liked it. The sibling bond is always a refreshing switch from the romantic bond Hollywood usually focuses on. (Kind of like Frozen but real people and rated R. Very much R.) I made up an entirely fake unscientific book rating system in this post so I figured, why not do the same for movies? YOLO.*

I give The Skeleton Twins 3.75 out of 5 stars. It is definitely dark, and has hilarious dialogue (check and check!), but I wasn't thrilled with the ending, and found some plot lines maybe even a little too dark/disturbing. Thoughts like, I get everyone here is having a rough time, but does it have to be that rough? Really? went through my mind while watching it. But hey, life's tough. So I respect what they were doing.

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A central theme of the movie is suicide, and I appreciate movies that try to broach that difficult topic. I think the more public and socially acceptable we can make the conversation about suicide and suicide prevention, the better chance we have of addressing this serious issue. (Fast fact: About 40,000 Americans die of suicide every year. And for people ages 15-24, suicide is the second leading cause of death.**) Suicide prevention is actually a topic I feel very strongly about it -- and I just did a quick search of my 3+ years of blogging, and I don't think I've ever talked about it before! It's hard to discuss. So, although I wish it wasn't so stigmatized, I applaud movies that are bold enough to go there.

And, it's a tricky topic to address because it's hard to take the right angle. You certainly do NOT want to romanticize suicide (Did you see the article about the careless tweet regarding Robin William's tragic passing?), but you also don't want to belittle it or dismiss it or make it seem like a less serious issue than it is. I personally thought this film did a nice job of striking a balance between capturing the lasting impacts suicide can have on those left behind, and the challenges of contemplating "a way out" in the first person.

It also had some awesome dialogue. The awkward dinner scenes were amazing. Luke Wilson (Wigg's wife) is perfectly casted.

I think it's only out in limited release, but if The Skeleton Twins is showing near you, I'd check it out! From my biased opinion, it looks better than most of the other movies that are now showing!

Unless you're looking for a total happy escape. (And if you are - I don't blame you!) Then you can't go wrong with Frozen.

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*I give you my full permission and even some encouragement to report my blog/report me to the police for the terrible use of that cringe-worthy acronym.

**Source for my stats on suicide: SAVE (Suicide Awareness Voices of Education.) Link leads to more stats.