Wristcutters: A Love Story

Plot synopsis:
After Zia commits suicide, he finds himself in an afterlife limbo much the same as life, just slightly worse. Here the color is dim, there are no stars, and no one can smile. This strange realm is populated by people who have committed suicide, such as Eugene, a Russian musician who lives with his mother, father, and brother – all suicide victims.
Together they waste most of their afterlives in bars, until Zia learns from a friend, Brian, that his ex-girlfriend, Desiree, has also committed suicide. He and Eugene take to the road to find her, in Eugene's rundown car. Early on, it is revealed that Eugene's car has two idiosyncrasies: a sort of black hole underneath the passenger seat where items that are dropped disappear forever and broken headlights that cannot be fixed by even the most adept of mechanics. On their trip, they pick up hitchhiker Mikal, who insists there has been a mistake, and is seeking the "people in charge" (a.k.a. the PIC) in order to be sent back.
After a few adventures across the country, as the trio journey along a desolate highway, Mikal pushes a button, miraculously activating the broken headlights on Eugene's car. Shortly thereafter, they come upon a man lying in the middle of the dark highway, forcing them to veer off the road in order to avoid hitting him and wrecking the car in the process.
They discover the man, Kneller (Tom Waits), an eccentric commune leader, had fallen asleep while looking for his dog. Kneller invites them back to his camp, where they quickly discover that minor "miracles" occur, as long as the campers remain apathetic about the result. The group stays with the camp longer than intended, and Zia begins to obsess over the miracles and his inability to perform them. When contrasting this to Mikal's obsession with the people in charge, she reveals that her death was an accidental overdose. Eugene meets a young woman, Nanuk, whom he romances. Just as Mikal and Zia discuss their plans to leave Kneller's camp, another camper, Yan, emerges from the woods with news that Kneller's dog has been abducted by a cult leader called "Messiah King". Kneller, Zia, Mikal, and Yan set off in search of King and Kneller's dog.
The group soon find themselves lost and decide to bed down for the night. Unable to sleep, Mikal and Zia discover a nearby ocean shore, where they kiss and spend the night together. In the morning, Kneller discovers them lying among a mass of (presumably used) condoms and needles. The group eventually reach King's camp, where they discover that King (Will Arnett) is readying himself for a "real" miracle – to separate his soul from his body. As Kneller confronts King, Zia discovers that his Desiree is a devout cult follower, having committed suicide for the purpose of following King into the afterlife.
As King is about to perform public, ritual suicide, Kneller reveals himself to be an undercover agent for the people in charge. King and Desiree are taken away, while Mikal leaves with them, promising Zia that she'll return. As Zia waits, Eugene and Nanuk arrive, explaining that Mikal has been returned to life and Kneller's camp has been shut down. They depart together on a train, giving Eugene's car to Zia. After finally performing a miracle - creating a star in the sky next to one that Mikal had created earlier - Zia enters the black hole under the car seat.
The film cuts to a large warehouse filled with halls of boxes; Kneller is seen picking up Zia's file from a box, placing it into his inside breast pocket, and commenting on how fortunate it is to know people in high places. The film cuts back to Zia, who wakes up in a hospital bed. He turns his head, noting his parents outside a door talking to doctors. When he looks at the person in the bed next to his, he sees Mikal. Both look at each other and smile.

Tags: comedy, cult, alternate reality, flashback, psychedelic, romantic, storytelling, sentimental

Review:
Set in an afterlife reserved for people who commit suicide, it seems to contain wacky nuggets of truth from oddball characters including Zia, searching for the love of his life, Mikal, an accidental visitor, Eugene, a Russian musician that electrocuted himself on stage from being badly heckled, and the weird and wonderful Kneller, played by the ever-mysterious Tom Waits.Zia slits his wrists and promptly wakes up in a world resembling this one, except that the colours are rather washed out and nobody smiles.
He abandons his job at Kamikaze Pizza to search for his former love Desirée, and soon makes close friends with Mikal and Eugene, who accompany him on one of the strangest road trips since Dorothy lost her innocence in the Wizard of Oz.What gives Wristcutters its edge, are the frequent, addictively interesting, and not immediately fathomable symbols that keep cropping up and nagging away like in any good movie that yearns for cult status: such as the black hole under the passenger seat where things just disappear.
Then there are people who are just far too weird to have been dreamt up on the back of a Hollywood paycheck: like the throat-singing mute, the dead-again messiah, or the policeman who still has a hole in his head.There is a temptingly meaningful logic at work that will leave you fitting the pieces together long after the film has finished.
" We soon start looking for clues to this rather crazy world and here Mikal (played by the much under-rated Shannyn Sossamon) looks like a good bet - but then so does anyone if you let your imagination run wild enough.The religious orthodoxy behind the ultimate ideas of Wristcutters is a weakness, but it is put subtly and light-heartedly so will be inoffensive to most viewers.If the stars in your sky have gone out for a while, maybe treat yourself to this zany and very well-produced story to set them on fire again.
It's a bizarre tale of love, friendship, and the afterlife told through the eyes of director Goran Dukic and is based on the short story "Kneller's Happy Campers" by Etgar Keret.
The movie at times is very dark and odd but it only adds to the originality and creative minds behind the film.When watching this film, just sit back and enjoy the ride.
I enjoyed him as the crazy sidekick to Zia. And finally just because I think the guy is a riot and since half the audience started to laugh when they saw him appear on screen I must give credit to Will Arnett (GOB from Arrested Development) who appeared on screen for way to short of a role in my opinion.
I would have to say it's probably the second best film I seen all year maybe not for being powerful or moving but for being really original and creative.MovieManMenzel's final rating for "Wristcutters: A Love Story" is a 9/10.
the movie had all the chances in the world to be depressing, but it was far from it, there are only a few drama elements and the title is not deceiving, it truly is a love story and a beautiful one at that and also threaded with great humor, when I laughed, I laughed hard.
And I would probably cry if the ending was any different.I won't go into possibilities and impossibilities of metaphysical, because that's absolutely not what this story is about; purgatory, if you will, is only the stage, where the romantic play is performed, with that, it's innovative though actually daring, as it was probably obvious the box office would never explode from what 'Wristcutters' would make.
In my opinion, the movie is so well made it would have been great even if it was stripped of suicide thing and it was just a plain love story.
I stumbled upon the trailer on the internet, and it looked like it had all the makings of a quirky indie film: an interesting setup, a road trip, Tom Waits, so I was excited to see it, and...
The idea of the film "Wristcutters a Love Story" is intriguing to say the least, a dreary dimension for all suicide victims.
So often you see the type of weird people you wouldn't befriend if your life depended on it becoming heroes of their own quirky movies and their quirky characters fall in love against all quirky odds.
The odds in this case is granted an interesting concept, in that Fugit's character commits suicide (hence Wristcutters) and finds himself in a Grey-tinted land where no one smiles.Fugit meets Wigham's character, who is the most interesting in the film.
Shannyn Sossaman's character, a hitchhiker who is looking for the Gods of her new home, gets picked up and guess what happens with Fugit and Sossaman.A very interesting concept poorly executed by director Goran Dukic.
These characters include Shannyn Sossamon, who did a fairly good job, though at times seems strangely stiff; Shea Whigham as a Russian rock-n-roller (he was great!); Tom Waits as Kneller who runs a "camp", I loved his part and character - though his time in the film was too brief.
Much credit it due to Dukic for making something as tragic as suicide victims into laugh-out-loud catalysts.But the film perhaps belongs to Patrick Fugit who inhabits the protagonist Zia  a young man who slits his wrists in the first scene of the film and ends up in a 'suicide limbo' of sorts, where all people who have taken their own lives are banished.
He sets out on a road-trip with his friend Eugene (a superbly funny Shea Whigham)  a Russian immigrant who lives with his whole family of suicide victims and soon the two are joined by a beautiful newcomer and hitchhiker (Shannyn Sossamon) who claims she got here "by mistake" and is now trying to rectify it by finding the people in charge.Although much fun is to be found in the creatively barren setting, the central triumvirate is possibly one of the most dynamic mix of characters on film in recent years, no hyperbole.
It is both admirable and puzzling that the film manages so funny without resorting to laughter or smiles (there are two smiles throughout the movie, seriously).But 'Wristcutters' has problems: it remains a shallow look at an infinitely more layered issue, suicide.
I was immediately drawn to this movie because of its premise: life within a dark, purgatorial world inhabited solely by individuals who had committed suicide during their time on Earth.
If you're a movie buff with a wide range of film tastes who is not easily offended, like I am, a movie called "Wristcutters: A Love Story" is going to draw you in because of the title alone.
If you're interested, Zia finds out that Desiree killed herself a little while later, and he embarks on a road trip with his Russian rocker friend Eugene (Shea Whigham) to find her in this same world.On the way, they pick up hitchhiker Mikal (Sossamon), who died of an accidental drug overdose.
The problem is, guys will probably wonder why Patrick Fugit doesn't get it in his head to do just that immediately.If you've ever once considered suicide, and this movie made you change your mind, it's probably good you saw it.
We can enjoy the romantic drama, but everything else is muddied and meaningless.In, "Wristcutters," Zia (Patrick Fugit of "Almost Famous") cuts his wrists (obviously) and subsequently kills himself because he is distraught from his break-up with Desiree (Leslie Bibb), only to find that his suicide only results in him entering a desolate world full only of people who have also taken their "first" lives.
Weird stuff like that, though we know it must have some relevancy, are frustrating when everything else isn't fully developed yet.This is the kind of movie that might convince some people to love it because one or two of the strange, metaphysical events or ideas will connect to them and that alone will excite them, but those one or two don't connect to the other ones in the film.
There are so many characters (toward the end especially) and things going on that there's no possible way you can link all the film's scenes, events and moments that have red flags sticking out of them so that they should be known as part of the film's greater meaning.It would, however, be unfair to not recognize that the movie is marketed, by its title, as a love story and to a degree it should be judged as such.
It helps that they give the film's best performances-- you can somewhat connect their characters' experiences in the film to their past to make some effort into understanding why they are drawn to each other, but as much as this film would like to say it's supposed to be a love story at core, everything around the core makes it so difficult to access appropriately that you almost have to wonder if there's a core at all.
I only had a vague understanding of the movie beforehand (one of those random choices based on the title blurb and presence of Shannyn Sossamon).I'll try not say whats been said before but simply put this is an amazing movie, from the acting to the score to the humour and the storyline its simply divine and one of the best movies I've seen in a long long time.The films ability to make you laugh and care for the characters is stunning and the cast works wonderfully well together.
Wristcutters is a little known film directed by Goran Dukic and loosely based on Etgar Keret's short story "Kneller's Happy Campers".
It stars familiar faces like Patrick Fugit, best known for his role as a rock-music writer in the breakthrough film Almost Famous; and Shannyn Sossamon, from a Knight's Tale.
Wristcutters is truly one of the most odd, yet most pleasant movies I have seen in a very long time.It shows us a strange afterlife way station reserved for people who have committed suicide.
When you don't even think about it." The bit of music 'bad music' in the movie is really good with a Russian bloke singing "Through the roof and underground' with the lead characters singing along, out of tune, whilst in the car whose headlights don't work.
If you can tolerate simplicity in its full, like good 'bad music', prefer seeing someone as pretty Shannyn Sossamon smile at the end of it all, watch Wristcutters.
The concept of a afterlife or place where people who committed suicide live sounded cool and interesting to me and I hoped for a little gem.
Wristcutters: A Love Story" open with our protagonist, Zia (Patrick Fugit) tidies up his room, and then succumbed into his death by cutting his own wrist.
After learns that Zia's girlfriend, Desiree (Leslie Bibb), also killing herself and ends up in this afterworld, Zia and Eugene decides to take a road trip to find her.On the way to the "East-ish", they meet a hitchhiker, Mikal (Shannyn Sossamon), who's looking for "people in charge" of this limbo world, because she thinks her death was a mistake.
Eventually, they make a stop by accident when they've found a so called "magical" camp runs by Kneller (Tom Waits) who happen to be a more just a suicidal.Just I have said, you don't have to make you film feel trippy or weird to live up to the plot.
You just let the audience feel that they belong to the world they are watching, and then everything else will automatically special.Even though this film talks about suicide like it's completely normal, but I felt that it's opposite to the massage they meant to make.
Back to the phases "Miracles only happen when they don't matter", (which I think play the most significant part in this movie), they just want to tell us that the moment people are about committing suicide, it's the time they are unable to see the miracles in everyday life.
I think it's used in too many films nowadays, and it feel pretty redundant and clichéd up to this point.The movie end with a happy note, maybe it's just too happy and a little bit dreamy (I would say).
Along the way, they pick up a hitchhiker named Mikal (Shannyn Sossamon), who has just found herself in this world and is searching for the "people in charge" in order to be dealt another hand at life.Wristcutters has the potential to be a seriously downtrodden film, encapsulated in its own misery so deeply that it becomes an unenjoyable experience.
Although the movie starts off in a slow weird way, once you watched through you'll learn to like the characters and love their friendship.
Depressed over his girl Desiree (Leslie Bibb), Zia (Patrick Fugit) kills himself and is stuck in purgatory with other people who committed suicide.
With a plot like this, where the main character is sent to an alternate life, where people who have committed suicide, "end-up", there could have been much more creative substance to this film.
The clever and imaginative comedy "Wristcutters: A Love Story," written and directed by Goran Dukic, takes place in a world populated entirely by people who've committed suicide, a land that has everything the live world has to offer, apparently, except a sky full of stars and cell phone reception.
A film set in a strange afterlife way station that has been reserved for people who have committed suicide.I think the film's concept is great.
But Mikal claims she didn't commit suicide, and is looking for the people that "run this place." The journeys of the threesome interlock in unusual ways, including a romance that will play itself out in the end of all ends.Most interesting about Wristcutters is that symbolism plays a huge role.
I just don't think it's accessible enough.The story follows Zia (Patrick Fugit) in his quest through a bizarre afterlife occupied only by suicides to find his ex-girlfriend, Desiree (Leslie Bibb).
Patrick Fugit is very good as a new arrival to this separate universe for people who have "offed" themselves: a hot, dry, rural place where nobody smiles and the most interesting thing to ask is "So, how did you do it?" Fugit finds out his former girlfriend killed herself soon after he died, and so sets out on a journey to find her with the help of Russian pal Shea Whigham.
Its conceit, that there is a post-mortem place where suicides go, actually feels about righta dark, dirty, desaturated, desert (Southern California?) with machines on the brink of normal death in a time just before cells and computers but modern enough for lost souls finding their way back to themselves even if they are dead.Zia (Patrick Fugit, looking like a young Harvey Keitel) opens the film by cleaning his room and then offing himself in the titular way.
A friend, Mikal (Shannyn Sossamon) swears she is there by mistake and is trying to find the people in charge so she can go back.So, Zia, Mikal and Eugen (Shea Whigham) set off on adventure.You can't make sense of Goran Dukic's film.
Although obvious, the film and (especially) Sossamon are satisfying enough.***** Wristcutters (1/24/06) Goran Dukic ~ Patrick Fugit, Shannyn Sossamon, Shea Whigham, Tom Waits.
A radiating low-budget love-story that follows Zia, a guy who starts the film by killing himself, then turning up at the afterlife, missing his girlfriend who isn't there.
Our main character ends up on a road trip with his Russian friend and a girl who "shouldn't be there", in search of some sense for the events and perhaps a way to find love again.The problem is that the afterlife is not the only thing that depresses the watcher: the total unimaginativeness of the (original) story is the second.
Very rarely are there films that have a great sense of awe in them, but the following film by up and coming director Goran Dukic is a must see for anyone who believes they have it bad and would like it to be better.The film follows Zia(Patrick Fugit, "Almost Famous") as he is enthralled into such a bland and atmospheric as well as depressing world after committing suicide over his girlfriend.He spends his days working and putting up with his Austrian roommate.
Later on he is befriended by Eugene(Shea Wigham) a former musician who decided to say "F**k it all." The two begin to share a strange bond and soon find themselves on a tour through the rubbish infested Outlands of the other side; Once Zia finds out that his girlfriend committed suicide a month after he did.The two on their road trip encounter Mikal a recent suicide who is looking for the "people in charge" because to her belief it is a mistake she is there.The three then find themselves on a minute adventure filled with miracles and dark humor.The film is wonderfully adapted from the novella "Kneller's Happy Campers" by Etgar Keret by Director Goran Dukic.
You will laugh and you will "feel" and in the end you will find yourself smiling as if you had just accomplished something in your life.I would also like to give many thanks to the people responsible for the film.
Wristcutters: A Love Story, the title itself brings some idea of the humor in the film.
Another aspect of the film I liked was the idea that in the world set a part for the suicidal nothing happens if you want it too badly.
When the movie begins, we are following Patrick Fugit's character through a strange Pergatory, which we find out is the land where people who have successfully committed suicide end up.