Wristcutters: A Love Story
I bought a copy of Wristcutters: A Love Story the other day. I rarely buy movies when they first come out, which should indicate how much I liked it. I don’t usually like love stories, especially if there is a happy ending — maybe I’m too cynical and I’ve been burned too many times. The novella, Kneller’s Happy Campers, the movie is based on doesn’t have a happy ending; I’d like to check it out.
In a nutshell, Zia commits suicide after breaking up with his girlfriend, only to find himself in an afterlife that’s like life, just a bit worse: no one can smile or laugh and there are no stars in the sky. He finds out that his girlfriend killed herself too, so Zia and Eugene (loosely based on Eugene Hütz of Gogol Bordello) go on a road trip to find her.
I was attracted to this movie when I heard Tom Waits was in it. He did a great job and his character is fantastic. In one scene he tells the best tree story I’ve ever heard:
Once upon a time there was a crooked tree and a straight tree, and they grew next to each other. And every day the straight tree would look at the crooked tree and he would say, “You’re crooked. You’ve always been crooked and you’ll continue to be crooked.”
“But look at me! Look at me!” said the straight tree. “I’m tall, and I’m straight.”
And one day the lumberjacks came into the forest and looked around, and the manager in charge said, “Cut all the straight trees!”
And that crooked tree is still there to this day, growing strong, and growing strange.
Wonderful story.
I was disappointed to see the theatrical poster wasn’t used for the DVD. I hate when studios, distributors, or whoever is in charge does that. I really liked the poster. I love the signs in the background depicting various ways to commit suicide and the heart-shaped drops of blood on the main sign. It was refreshing to see a poster that was all graphics without any human figures.
Here’s a clip with Gogol Bordello’s “Through the Roof ’n’ Underground” (one of my favorite songs) playing in the background:
Grow strange but don’t be strangers, my dear readers.