To me, this movie is perfection.

Lack of good storyline.

Good concept, poorly executed.

I like movies that are aware of what they are selling... without [any] greater aspirations than to make people laugh and that's it.

This is such a refreshingly different film - character-driven and somehow managing to be tragic and and painful and funny, all at the same time. Co-written and directed by Craig Johnson, it stars two excellent actors as the eponymous siblings: Kristen Wiig ("Bridesmaids") and Bill Hader ("Trainwreck") as Maggie and Milo, both of whom have been mixed up since children and, following a breach of ten years, resume their relationship following suicide attempts. A particularly memorable scene is when the twins mime together to "Nothing's Gonna Stop Us Now" by Starship.

Twins Milo and Maggie have not seen each other for ten years then Maggie gets a call to say her estranged brother is in hospital after a failed suicide attempt.She goes to see him out in L.A. and brings him back to New York. There he gets to confront his past, their joint histories and whatever the future may hold. This is essentially them getting to know each other again after such a long hiatus and in doing so holding up a metaphoric mirror to each other.Now this started out a bit slow but once it picked up it is really engaging. Bill Hader as Milo manages to capture the complexities of some one full of life's disappointment but still with reserves of joy that just need tapping. Kristen Wiig plays his sister who has more layers than an onion in terms of how she juggles her various needs. In other words they are both just really human with the same frailties we all have. This is a comedy but it is somewhat dark and often wry but I still found this to be extremely enjoyable for all that – recommended to those who like an offbeat comedy.

At first, this film was perceived to me as a low causality art film, but I had advisedly realized that it is not so much. I was quite excited by the cast list, plot, and even the title clicked with me, and so I had high expectation for this film that was created by an indie director I was unfamiliar with, Craig Johnson. I feel as though this movie is a great representation of what a more widely accepted indie film will become or are has already been established to be. The Skeleton Twins is a family-based drama staring two well known comedians, Kristen Wiig and Bill Hader, with a plot dwelling on depression and suicide. The first scenes are of the brother, Milo, attempting suicide and the sister, Maggie, contemplating suicide with enough pills in hand to do the trick. The story proceeds with Milo moving into Maggie and her husband Lance's house which is located in their hometown. The siblings seemed to be well connected, regardless of going through ten years without any contact. The story unveils the past suicide of their close father, an uncaring and toxic mother, and a illegal past relationship of Milo and a high school teacher. Milo and Maggie are common in depression, suicidal thoughts, relationship problems, and both struggle with moving forward. The film ends as it does open; one sibling attempts suicide and the other comes to the rescue.There are many reoccurring symbols and hidden connecting motifs which some were not picked up until the third time around watching. It is evident that skeletons are a predominant symbol throughout the movie. The title, the toys Maggie and Milo had from a young age, the tattoos they share, and the mask the father was seen wearing in a flashback. Perhaps this symbolizes their relationship with their close father (a character he portrayed to them when they were young) and their bond they created going through the event of his death at a young age together. Other symbols tossed around is a goldfish and water. In the opening, Milo throws a picture of him and his ex-boyfriend into his fish tank and brings it up to Maggie that he doesn't want to leave his goldfish behind when he moves in with her. Maggie shatters two glass aquariums throughout the movie and unintentionally kills two goldfish she bought for Milo. Milo lays in a bath as he tries to take his life, Maggie soaks in a bath after having a bad day, Maggie is taking scuba lessons at a pool and eventually tries to take her own life in it as well. After all, the opening shot is one skeleton toy at the bottom of a pool as young Maggie dives in and retrieves it. Therefore water is a symbol of the struggles the siblings are experiencing throughout their life; a metaphor for suffocating from their complex psychological troubles and a literal means of how they try to end or 'fix' them.Some people seem to be questioning if the ending is realistic or not. I argue that the story is upheld and realistic in a many sense. Why does Milo suddenly hop off his bus and instinctively know that Maggie is attempting suicide at the pool? Well, one can reason that Maggie's calm and happy voice-mail ending with "See ya later" can be compared to Milo's suicide note: "To whom it may concern: see ya later". Their bond appears to be quite real throughout the movie and I think it is quite fitting and heartwarming in a way that they both end up saving each other. Although there are some of your typically Hollywood movie moments in the film that I would personally replace, such as the rooftop scene or Maggie dramatically dropping the fish tank, overall I quite enjoyed this film. There were many funny lines from both protagonists ("I showed up on dyke night? Sh*t!") and scenes (dentist office). The story reflects some dramatic and hard times people may face in a delicate and overall slightly uplifting way when focusing on the bond of two highly relatable siblings.

Kristen Wiig and Bill Hader are such comedy wunderkinds that a dramatic role sounds like a waste. We can picture Wiig screwing around a room with the pizazz of Carol Burnett, with Hader, alongside her, spitting out wicked lines in a wacky voice. Though The Skeleton Twins has a handful of funny moments, it is first and foremost a gloomy drama; we may all love Wiig and Hader's antics on Saturday Night Live, but they are blessed with some serious acting talent. It's the Double Indemnity to their Ball of Fire, the War and Peace to their Sabrina.Twins Maggie (Wiig) and Milo (Hader) have been estranged for 10 years. They're reacquainted, however, when Maggie receives a call from an unknown number; she is informed that Milo has attempted suicide. In one hand, she holds the phone. In the other is a smattering of pills. It's a coincidence that seems as though God set it up just for them. Maggie immediately invites Milo to stay with her and her picture perfect husband, Lance (Luke Wilson), in their suburban New York home; but just as they begin to reconnect, they are forced to face their innermost demons.Milo has been living in Los Angeles for a decade, desperate to become a famous actor. He's seen little success, his life marred with constant disappointment. Maggie knows that she has married a good man, but she is bored with her comfortable, predictable marriage; she's partaken in several affairs and has purposely destroyed any chances of having a baby, something Lance dreams of.The people in The Skeleton Twins aren't unstable in a melodramatic fashion. They are disappointed with their lives, ready to do something drastic just to inject meaning into their veins. Milo thought he'd be the bullied outsider that could, one day, come to a class reunion and laugh at his balding, middling tormentors. Maggie thought that she could live in domestic bliss and stay within that bliss. But it doesn't happen.The film explores several relationships, going back and forth between Milo and Maggie, Milo and his ex-lover, Rich (Ty Burrell), who destroyed his teenage years, and the siblings and their flighty mother (Joanna Gleason). The conversations glide over and under sheer wit and blood- letting, the characters are written with hundreds of layers. They hit close to home, making us question our own self-confidence and achievements.But it's one of those films in which the biggest successes come from the actors. If they didn't have chemistry, The Skeleton Twins would never work. Yet the emotional bonds (good or bad) between the actors in the film are so instantaneously genuine that there is a fluidity that makes the anguish all the more real. The laughs are quick, but they are consistently overtaken by the somber sequences that follow them. Because, in real life, a joke can be thrown off a roof if you open up an old wound.Read more reviews at petersonreviews.com