Wilbur Wants to Kill Himself

Plot synopsis:
When Wilbur leaves the hospital after having tried once more to kill himself, the staff ask his brother Harbour to let Wilbur move in with him.
The brothers thus share their childhood flat, which is next door to the bookshop their father left them.
Uninterested in the family business, Wilbur works in a nursery. Harbour takes care of the shop and meets Alice, a mother who sells him the books she finds when working as a cleaner at the hospital.
When she is sacked for always being late at work, she goes to see Harbour to explain why she won't be coming to the bookshop again as she has no books to sell. Following his brother's advice on "grabbing" women, Harbour asks Alice to marry him. The wedding meal is held at an Asian restaurant and allows Wilbur to get acquainted with Sophie, Alice's ex-colleague from the hospital. The two start flirting, but Wilbur pushes Sophie away after she licks his ear. After the meal, Wilbur goes back home and slits his wrists in the bath.
Harbour finds his brother just in time and Alice saves Wilbur by using towels to stop the bleeding. While discussing Wilbur with Alice, Harbour tells her his brother feels responsible for their mother's death.
As he is about to leave the hospital, Wilbur gets a nurse named Moira, infatuated with him, to lick his ear. Instead of reciprocating the favour, he wipes his ear and leaves the room. At the same time, a few doors along, Harbour is told by a doctor that he needs to stay in the hospital for some tests. Harbour refuses because he wants to be at home with his new family.
Wilbur, Harbour, Alice and Mary live together next to the bookshop, allowing them all to get close to one another.
Before Mary's birthday party, Alice asks Harbour buy some whipped cream at the supermarket, where he has a fit.
He wakes up at the hospital, where Dr Horst, a psychologist he has met many times through Wilbur, tries to convince him to get treatment for pancreatic cancer. The two men share a bottle of whisky, Dr Horst believing that such is the condition of Harbour's liver thar a little alcohol will be insignificant. Wilbur goes back to the bookshop to bring Alice the whipped cream for Mary's party. When a little girl asks him to stand on his head, he throws up on her dress embroidered with gold. Harbour is put to bed; as Wilbur and Alice tidy up after the party, they kiss briefly until she says she cannot continue.
The next day, Wilbur tries to jump off a building, only to realise he doesn't want to. He goes homes to apologise to Alice for kissing her, but they do again.
Dr Horst tells Harbour he must explain his very serious situation to his family, but he doesn't know how to.
To fight their mutual attraction he and Alice, Wilbur decides to make nurse Moira his girlfriend. One evening, as they are all out for a meal, Moira tells the family they should change their eating habits to help Harbour's during his chemotherapy.
Furious at Harbour for wasting time instead of getting treatment, Alice takes him to hospital and spends the night there with him despite Harbour being scared that Wilbur might try to kill himself. The latter, having stayed at home to take care of Mary, decides not to commit suicide when he realises the little girl needs him. Wilbur resigns from his job to replace his brother at the bookshop. Harbour's condition does not improve, so his doctor allows him to spend his last Christmas at the bookshop.
After dinner, as Harbour tucks Mary into bed, she asks him if he is going to spend the night in Wilbur's room, implying that he will be in Alice's. As he is about to take a taxi back to the hospital, Harbour asks his brother to take care of Alice and Mary. In his hospital room, Harbour takes all his pills and trims his fingernails before lying in bed fully clothed.

Tags: romantic, comedy

Review:
It tells the tale of two 30-something brothers who own a dilapidated second-hand bookshop in Glasgow,  and their search for different things.The writing is effortless, but so natural and brilliant, the characters are beautifully crafted and it makes a refreshing change to see a film that is not about the location or the effects - but about the story and characters.As for the acting - not a bad word can be said about any of the actors.
They are backed up by two brilliant turns from Julia Davis as Moira and Mads Mikkelsen as Horst.It may sound depressing from the title, and you may well shed a tear before the end of the movie, but I can guarantee that you will leave the cinema a wiser and more enriched person for having seen Wilbur....
Set in Scotland and telling the tale of a suicidal man whose life changes when he falls in love with single mother Shirley Henderson, it is both witty and sad in just the right measure.
"Wilbur wants to kill himself" is a (so)moving parable about how easy is to let yourself die when everything seems meaningless and how hard is to live when a disease is mining you.
Wilbur looks like a nice guy, the kind of man women like, he's good-looking, he has a brother who loves him...
On the contrary, his brother Harbour is full of life, he's an enthusiastic person, he's in love and he's just get married...
He's a friendly, charming and responsible man, who's flirting with one of two regular costumers, a girl name Alice.Alice (Shirley Henderson) is a lonely woman, who works as cleaning personal in a hospital, in order to support her daughter Mary (Lisa McKinlay).Well.
Do we want the older, responsible, nice, kind, calm brother, or his sexual beast of an opposite, Wilbur?--------------My reviewSet in beautiful, but depressing Scotland, Lone Scherfig (The director of Dogma 8: Italiensk for begyndere) has made a small film about love.
The story itself is pretty average, but the way this film treats suicide, and the absurdity of wanting to finish life, makes it worth watching.
Two different brothers living in a bookshop, one nice and helpful, the other one miserable, lame and suicidal for no real reason.
A nice older brother always to be remembered by his stepdaughter.If you think that the above lines do not make a whole lot of sense then this is, of course, also because they do not tell the whole story but hopefully give an impression on what kind of movie it is.
Although WILBUR WANTS TO KILL HIMSELF is an honest and unflinching look at death and suicide, it manages to evoke overwhelming feelings of compassion and tenderness.
Wilbur, played by Jamie Sives, is despondent over the the death of his parents, and he has made numerous attempts at suicide to end his pain.
As the narrative becomes even more tangled, yet never contrived, we are drawn to the true heart of the film-Lone Scherfig's deft and loving examination of the characters' interactions.
Do not let the downbeat subject of this film put you off, WILBUR WANTS TO KILL HIMSELF is truly a heartwarming experience..
If you have seen or will see the film, I'm sure you'll know why.I wanted to like this movie, and I still just couldn't.
(Might want to check out her mini-bio on IMDb - quite interesting to learn about a filmmaker's background.) "WILBUR wants to kill himself" is a small quiet film that actually has much human pathos.
The three 'and a half' main leads: Harbour, the older brother who's closely protective of Wilbur, is sensitively played by Adrian Rawlins; Wilbur, the younger brother, is lively played (sounds like an oxymoron considering what the title suggests his role is) by Jamie Sives; Alice, the young woman who came into their lives, is subtly played by Shirley Henderson, and the critical 'half' being her little daughter Mary, aptly played by Lisa McKinlay - the portrayals and interplay were flawless.
The film's a tear-jerker - wouldn't you know it - with dashes of bemused humor (little details and vignettes like at the Chinese restaurant, at the hospital ward, or by the river, and of course, in the bookstore and in the bedroom) - it's basically about where one's heart is.
Wilbur just might learn to let go of himself, think less of himself, and surrender to loving life.
"WILBUR wants to kill himself" deservedly worth your while.About the talented Shirley Henderson from Scotland: I've enjoyed her performance as Shirley, the wife & mother and love interest, opposite Robert Carlyle and Rhys Ifans in w-d Shane Meadows' "Once Upon a Time in the Midlands" (2002) - almost a similar menage a trois situation but less assertive than her role in "WILBUR." She's also in director John Crowley's "Intermission" (2003, script by Mark O'Rowe) - taken on, among the stellar cast, the rather offbeat yet still demure role of Sally (the script itself is plucky and unyielding alright - then again, it's probably quite 'normal' in the setting described) - another amusingly enjoyable film from Ireland if you're so gamed..
The little nuances of the actors and actresses in the movie make it into an absolutely down-to-earth film; they just seem like normal people...
It was a well directed dogma movie with excellent acting, but when it comes down to it the story was very vague, and I for one did not find that movie very interesting at all.However, Wilbur Wants to Kill Himself is an excellent and beautiful film about the Scottish Wilbur (Jamie Sives) who makes use of every other moment to attempt suicide.
As Harbour discovers love in Alice, beautifully played by Shirley Henderson, they become four in the home as Alice and her 9-year-old daughter Mary moves in, and Wilbur discovers love in both of them as well as he gets to see death from a new and unexpected perspective.It was a good choice to make this movie in English, rather than Danish, and the result is an excellent drama which will apply to most people even though they, like me, may not be much for that sort of movies.
This film is about the life of a man who looks after his suicidal brother, after their parents passed away."Wilbur Wants to Kill Himself" has a very engaging plot.
"Wilbur Wants to Kill Himself" is a very interesting and engaging look at the psychological journey of a troubled family..
This isn't it.But if you like films with a strong emotional/melancholic atmosphere that are touching your heart without any of the ingredients that are used for "Hollywood Mass Production Romantics" then the chances are good that "Wilbur Wants to Kill Himself" will give you a wonderful experience beyond words and you might loose so many tears that you become almost dehydrated in the last part of it.
Folks should be aware of this, as the movie could seriously depress you and make you feel miserable when you're just looking to have a laugh.Wilbur (Jamie Sives) is a screwed up guy.
Part of this might be because he loves Wilbur, but later you find that it might have to do with the reason Wilbur feels a need to die.Despite all this chaos, Harbour decides to marry and he brings a woman and her young daughter into the household.
And, what's to happen to everyone when Harbour learns some very, very bad news?The acting in this film is very restrained but good.
However, I cannot score the film higher because the script is so odd--starting off somewhat like a comedy and then leaving the viewer wanting to kill themselves as well!
But, the characters were somewhat incomplete for me, and the writing good but not top-notch.To me, the film was most interesting in the resonance of the main characters, especially that of Wilbur.
The United Kingdom has some good cinema, made with all the effort by people that, with movies like this one, get the shot they wait during their whole lives.Lone Scherfig, a Danish director and Anders Thomas Jensen, his writing partner, have accomplished an original fable about life; love, relationships, family and, wellDeath.
The tagline proposes: "The life he wanted to end, was just about to begin", in reference to Wilbur (Jamie Sives), who, when we first meet him, has just tried to kill himself."It gets more and more humiliating every time I try to do it and I fail", Wilbur tells his older brother Harbour (Adrian Rawlins), as they get out of the hospital.
Harbour loves Wilbur and wants to take care of him.
He maintains them both and tries to prevent Wilbur from achieving his only goal: end with his life.One of the magical ideas the movie has is that it won't let that happen.
Wilbur meets her, then, as she saves his life when he was trying toSoon, Harbour and Alice fall in love, and she moves in with them, alongside her daughter.They all seem happy until Wilbur tries it again, so we can meet very realistic characters, as Dr. Horst (Mads Mikkelsen), a psychiatrist with a good heart that's only trying to help, and some women that like Wilbur.
But Wilbur doesn't see women, at least not until his brother ends up in the hospital, and he "meets" Alice.
We understand the flames of love they feel for each other because the film has made the characters sympathetic until this moment.It's these three people story what turns around, and the performances.
Very, very odd film.Wilbur, a suicidal lunatic, is admitted to a mental hospital after an attempt to take his own life.
Harbour, his good-hearted, well-balanced ever loving brother invites Wilbur to stay with him at his bookshop/house to allow Wilbur some time to get back on his feet.
Harbour, far from looking virtuous for accepting Wilbur going off with his wife, ends up looking like a victim.
Wilbur wants to kill himself -- and, frankly, so did I for the first half of the film.
Now I know why the Scottish accent is called a burr -- because it's so prickly and irritating!The second part of the film was more bearable, I suppose, but it all had a feeling of deja vu about it -- retread, same old, same old.I was also distracted by what I felt was the miscasting of the actor who played Wilbur's brother, Harper.
Wilbur's desperate need to end his life just didn't feel real to me, just faintly comedic.
"Wilbur Wants to Kill Himself," set in gloomy Glasgow, a city with a collective depression syndrome to begin with, polarizes audiences into "It's great" and "It's awful" groupings.
Moods are created by settings that reflect the unfolding drama.Wilbur (Jamie Sives) and brother Harbour (Adrian Rawlins) inherited a small, dusty bookshop - shelves groaning with misplaced volumes - from their just deceased father.
But she has a sensuous love of life and a deep caring for her child.,  Harbour loves his brother and his new wife and his almost instant bonding with Mary is believable, the realization of a long, missing need.
Harbour, his caring and gentle brother, can't live without Wilbur.
It is from the quadrangle they form that Wilbur finally finds what is missing in his own life, and wants what his brother has so easily grasped: that love, in the forms and shapes around us, is all that will eventually make life worth living.
But Alice does not waiver in her love for Harbour, and even though they /can/ hurt him, neither she nor Wilbur is willing to go that far.
Wilbur wants to kill himself is about a twenty something scotsman, whose main objective in life is to end it.
The plot however i thought turned very sharply from one direction to another (wilburs suicidal tendencies to his relationship with his brothers wife, and then the end scene).Overall I thought the film had a very original idea and was very enjoyable, and i would definitely see it again.
Harbour is the only likeable person; a man who gives selflessly of himself to his suicidal younger brother and everyone else in his life, only to be betrayed and scorned (even by his own parents).
Wilbur procedes to "repay" his brother by having an affair with his wife, who claims to "love" Harbour.
Harbour, rather than try to go on fighting a almost certain death sentence from cancer, commits suicide in the hopes his brother will honor his promise to look after his wife and stepdaughter, giving Wilbur a reason to live.
Watching this movie, you'll learn to understand why he wants to, what has happened that makes him want to kill himself and what is going to change his life.
SPOILERS AHEAD !!!I like macabre and morbid humour, and I usually laugh about it because, to put it shortly, it's my opinion that life IS macabre and morbid at times.I didn't laugh during Wilbur Wants to Kill Himself, but I didn't cry either.
This is the first film I considered "too macabre" because I felt the humorous touch given to extremely sad incidents in the film were forced and the scenes could have easily worked without them.Wilbur's brother Harbour is such an unbearably miserable character that he can't be quite real.
Then, his mother didn't love him as much as she loved Wilbur, his father didn't love him as much as he loved Wilbur, his stepdaughter loves Wilbur more; he has to care for Wilbur who keeps committing suicide attempts believing he is funny while simply looking like Robbie Williams and therefore being very popular; he gets cancer and kills himself (successfully!), and in the end, his widow visits his grave hand in hand with Wilbur.I think, this is just sadistic.
When I first started watching this movie, I wanted to feel sympathy for Wilbur, but he is really just a great big jerk after seeing what he does to his brother.
In "Wilbur Wants to Kill Himself," a young man - who basically lives from one unsuccessful suicide attempt to another - is looked after and cared for by his brother who is suffering from terminal pancreatic cancer.
Moreover, it turns out that the mentally ill brother has designs on the physically ill brother's wife.It may be hard to believe from that synopsis, but "Wilbur Wants to Kill Himself" is actually a comedy.Indeed, "Wilbur," filled as it is with quirky characters and offbeat humor, is reminiscent of other well known Scottish comedies such as "Local Hero" and "Gregory's Girl," albeit this new film is darker and grimmer in its subject matter and theme.
Like the best Scottish comedies, this film provides us with a slice-of-life tale filled with ordinary, likable people who may have their weaknesses and eccentricities but who also strike chords of familiarity deep within the viewer.There are beautiful performances by Jamie Sives as Wilbur; Adrian Rawlins as his brother, Harbour; Shirley Henderson as Harbour's's wife, Alice (who is also in love with Wilbur); Lisa McKinlay as Mary, Alice's young daughter, and an assortment of other fine actors and actresses who populate the scene.Although the script threatens to veer off into melodrama and soap opera from time to time, the truthfulness of the writing and the honesty of the acting keep the film real and believable for most of the duration.
The movie ends with an ironic twist that shows that one person's death can often lead to a renewal of life for someone else.
I don't think I have ever been so infuriated with a movie character before as I was with Wilbur.
What makes me even more angry, is that up until the very end I actually liked Wilbur..
Enough to Give Suicide, Men Named Wilbur, and Movies a Bad Name.
Give It A Fair Try. A down to earth film, very true to its Glasgow roots.Wilbur is a suicidal 30 something, affected by loosing his mother at a young age.
His suicide attempts set the scene, and it becomes apparent that they are not truly serious but are in fact his reaction to the possibility, or sad fact, of loosing others in his life whom he depends on.It is love and responsibility that save him, as when faced with the harsh reality of loosing his brother Harbour, Wilbur is able to cope with the love of Harbour's wife and his role in her life and that of her daughter, and does not need to turn to suicide.A talented cast, including some identifiable faces, brings home this realistic story.
Wilbur (Wants to Kill Himself).
I think it being four stars, having one or two good people and the title was what persuaded me to try this film.
Basically good-hearted Harbour North (Adrian Rawlins) has spent years trying to look after his motherless, recently now fatherless, and suicidal young brother Wilbur (Jamie Sives).
Wilbur wants to kill himself is a killer movie.
If we do this times ten, which would equate to us being very complex, we question life and its reasons more than just the standard "why are we here" rhetoric, we are likely never to find anyone who can relate to us, and worst of all, to whom we can relate without sensing our own dishonesty with our own self.And though I don't know for certain, it seems to me that this is the point at which Wilbur may have arrived.
Wilbur, like most of us, wants to be loved for who he is, by someone who does not judge him.
I don't always need to like characters, and perhaps since this was sold as a "black comedy" what I was expecting from the film was skewed.
I like the film, not because it is on love or it is funny, but because it tell a story of mutual dependence of the characters.
they just need each other, so Wilbur stop trying to kill himself and learn to take care of Alice and her daughter.