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Movies / On DVD / Wristcutters: A Love Story
Wristcutters: A Love Story

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Wristcutters: A Love Story (2007)

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Reviews Counted:85

Fresh:55

Rotten:30

Average Rating:6.1/10

Consensus: Wristcutters: A Love Story sounds like a normal enough indie flick. Boy meets girl. Boy gets separated from girl. Boy goes on a road trip with friends to find girl and gains a new perspective on life. Except everybody's dead.

Rated: 15

Runtime: 1 hr 31 mins

Genre: Science-Fiction/Fantasy

Theatrical Release:23-11-2007

Synopsis: If a film begins with a suicide, chances are, it won't be the feel-good movie of the year. But WRISTCUTTERS: A LOVE STORY is surprisingly sweet and funny even as it proudly features a dark streak... If a film begins with a suicide, chances are, it won't be the feel-good movie of the year. But WRISTCUTTERS: A LOVE STORY is surprisingly sweet and funny even as it proudly features a dark streak that lives up to its title. After a rough breakup, Zia (Patrick Fugit) decides to off himself by slashing open his wrists. Instead of waking up in heaven or hell, Zia arrives in a bland world that looks a lot like the one he just left, though with far less color, life, and--obviously--happiness. In this afterlife reserved for suicides, no one can smile, and the sky is a starless void. But when Zia hears that his ex-girlfriend (Leslie Bibb) has killed herself and lives in his world, he sets out on a road trip to find her. Joined by Russian musician Eugene (Shea Whigham) and pretty hitchhiker Mikal (Shannyn Sossamon), Zia crosses the desolate landscape and encounters a variety of strange characters. With the help of Mikal, Zia realizes that maybe his ex-girlfriend isn't really what he's looking for. Most films don't stray from prescribed genres or simple plots, but this dark comedy from director Goran Dukic is audacious in its originality. Dukic adapted Etgar Keret's short story "Kneller's Happy Campers" into a film that succeeds on every level. His cast, particularly Fugit and a brilliant Tom Waits in a supporting role, is worthy of the excellent material and blackly comic dialogue. Though it could be described as a romantic comedy, this film is far closer to ETERNAL SUNSHINE OF THE SPOTLESS MIND than SLEEPLESS IN SEATTLE. WRISTCUTTERS's soundtrack is also something to sing about with several infectious tracks from Gogol Bordello and a pitch-perfect score from Bobby Johnston. [More]

Starring: Patrick Fugit, Shea Whigham, Shannyn Sossamon, Tom Waits

Starring: Patrick Fugit, Shea Whigham, Shannyn Sossamon, Tom Waits, Will Arnett, Leslie Bibb, John Hawkes, Abraham Benrubi, Mark Junior Boone, Jake Busey, Mikal P. Lazarev, Chase Ellison

Director: Goran Dukic

Director: Goran Dukic
Screenwriter: Goran Dukic
Producer: Adam Sherman, Tatiana Kelly, Mikal P. Lazarev, Chris Coen
Composer: Bobby Johnston
Studio: Lions Gate and AfterDark Films

[See More Credits]

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Reviews for Wristcutters: A Love Story

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1 - 20 (sorted by rotten rating; UK critics are listed first)
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A dreary, self-consciously quirky indie flick that seems to go on forever, despite an economical running time.

Full Review Source: Daily Mirror [UK] | comment Comment
11/23/07
Daily Mirror [UK]
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

Another indie director more interested in style than substance.

Full Review Source: Little White Lies | comment Comment
11/21/07
Danny Bangs
Danny Bangs
Little White Lies

Opportunities to comment on the ethical grey areas of suicide are mostly squandered and, as the pointless digressions begin to pile up, your mind begins to drift from the action on screen.

Full Review Source: Time Out | comment Comment
11/22/07
David Jenkins
David Jenkins
Time Out
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

It is a staggeringly awful road movie, not much enlivened by the presence of Tom Waits as a wizened participant.

Full Review Source: This is London | comment Comment
11/23/07
Derek Malcolm
Derek Malcolm
This is London

Veering from witty to occasionally trite, Wristcutters: A Love Story has plenty of originality on its side, but never manages to be more than the sum of its self-consciously quirky parts.

Full Review Source: Channel 4 Film | comment Comment
11/23/07
Saxon Bullock
Saxon Bullock
Channel 4 Film
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

Despite being occasionally hilarious, director Goran Dukic should have toned down the wackiness.

Full Review Source: Empire Magazine | comment Comment
11/21/07
Empire Magazine
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

Sossamon and Fugit are so perfectly cast you can't help but sigh every time they glance at each other and their final scene is guaranteed to send you home with a smile a mile wide.

Full Review Source: Scotsman | comment Comment
10/22/07
Alistair Harkness
Alistair Harkness
Scotsman

The purgatorial premise is pleasingly eccentric but, in the end, Wristcutters falls victim to its washed-out mood, and limps bloodlessly to a close.

Full Review Source: Guardian [UK] | comment Comment
11/23/07
Cath Clarke
Cath Clarke
Guardian [UK]
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

Enjoyably quirky black comedy that's clearly destined to become a cult movie amongst the Gothic contingent.

Full Review Source: ViewLondon | comment Comment
11/22/07
Matthew Turner
Matthew Turner
ViewLondon

A little self-consciously kooky but with an ace soundtrack that combines gypsy punksters Gogol Bordello with real-life plug-pullers this sure beats putting your head in the oven.

Full Review Source: Total Film | comment Comment
11/23/07
Neil Smith
Neil Smith
Total Film

Dark subject matter, but Goran Dukic's film is whimsical and determinedly optimistic about life.

Full Review Source: BBC | comment Comment
11/23/07
Paul Arendt
Paul Arendt
BBC
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

While it's quirky and intriguing, this is the kind of wilfully nutty black comedy that treads the extremely thin line between inventiveness and pretentiousness.

Full Review Source: Shadows on the Wall | comment Comment
09/27/07
Rich Cline
Rich Cline
Shadows on the Wall

For the better part of the journey this a bizarrely uplifting yarn - razor sharp, you might say.

Full Review Source: Sky Movies | comment Comment
11/23/07
Tim Evans
Tim Evans
Sky Movies
N/R

Click to read the article

Full Review Source: St. Louis Post-Dispatch | comment Comment
11/03/07
St. Louis Post-Dispatch
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

It misses the opportunity to examine why a community of people - each of whom has already given up on life - would band together to form a new society of desperate misfits.

Full Review Source: I.E. Weekly | comment Comment
02/22/08
Amy Nicholson
Amy Nicholson
I.E. Weekly

The strain is obvious in the story's last third, as the filmmaker struggles toward a resolution that fits the logic of the hero's netherworld.

Full Review Source: Chicago Reader | comment Comment
11/02/07
Andrea Gronvall
Andrea Gronvall
Chicago Reader

It's a shapeless, flavorless Sundance blob that rolls around for 85 of the longer minutes you'll find in a theater this year.

Full Review Source: eFilmCritic.com | comment Comment
11/08/07
Brian Orndorf
Brian Orndorf
eFilmCritic.com

Boring, morose and uneventful, "Wristcutters: A Love Story" is a stinky little picture that mocks the afflicted while giving them a pat on the back.

Full Review Source: ColeSmithey.com | comment Comment
10/20/07
Cole Smithey
Cole Smithey
ColeSmithey.com

Having some laughs over suicide.

Full Review Source: Ozus' World Movie Reviews | comment Comment
06/10/08
Dennis Schwartz
Dennis Schwartz
Ozus' World Movie Reviews

The story's dialogue may be wry, but what should have been a jumping-off point for a lively discussion about the meaning of life is really just a philosophically shallow wasteland.

Full Review Source: Slant Magazine | comment Comment
10/14/07
Ed Gonzalez
Ed Gonzalez
Slant Magazine
 
 
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