Purely Joyful Movie!

Crappy film

Although it has its amusing moments, in eneral the plot does not convince.

A movie that not only functions as a solid scarefest but a razor-sharp satire.

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. Sadly, the story develops really slowly and most of the dialogues are imo boring and also the characters are not not captivating. I always had the feel that everything happening was kinda choreographed to look or sound "cool" but it just didn't work this way to me. Too cool, too pretentious artsy, a shallow in disguise, my opinion. Some praise Wristcutters and I won't condemn it. The movie just didn't ring the "right bell" for me. Okayish. But somehow a good but wasted idea.

So I never wrote a review before, but I just felt I needed to write one for this film. I have to say that I'm generally very critical about comedies because they seem to me just stupid and the stories are too often absolutely void of any meaning. I usually don't like comedies. In fact, I'm usually too critical about any kind of movie. I'm too critical about people around me. I'm too critical about life in general. I'm too critical about anything at all. And that's part of the reason why I needed to watch this so badly. I tend to appreciate films and art in general that seem powerful, tragic, dramatic, that capture the depth and tragic beauty of life and existence. This film is the absolute opposite in a way and yet it reached much deeper. The whole ambient of the film is very good. It's very relaxed, very careless, and leaves you in a great mood and happy about what you have. In a way, it reminds me of the Big Lebowski. It reminded me in a very heartfelt way that life isn't about achieving, winning or loosing, it's not so much about the moments of sudden change (like death, or a separation, or the loss of a loved one) which we usually overvalue, but a lot more about the nice moments which we overlook - the in between. The film is an in between moment. The characters are in some kind of quest. But the way it's shown to you makes you realize that in no way the final point of the quest is in any way more important than the moments in between. I absolutely loved the ambient and the characters. They're just enough to the crazy side and just enough down to earth. Also, the way some parts of the plot seem to make not so much sense or are a bit absurd just adds up to the nice carefree feeling. And obviously also the way that death or the afterlife is portrayed. I know I'm giving an absolutely personal and subjective perspective of the film. But I felt I should say this because this film just reminded me or even made me realize that life isn't really a tragedy in a moment when I most needed that. Watch this if you need to feel good (: I loved it. 9/10 (which I don't give easily and is the maximum I've ever given)

I skirted around watching Wristcutters: A Love Story for awhile because of the name. I think that the film would be watched on a larger scale if it was named after the short story it's based on: Kneller's Happy Campers, or just Happy Campers. That being said I knew I wanted to watch this film after reading many reviews saying it was a dark comedy. And after watching it I think it would be better defined as a quirky comedy. It deals with a dark issue but it doesn't do it in a dark way. I found most of the humor to be more odd ball comedy than dark. The story is about Zia (Patrick Fugit) who commits suicide. When he gets to the afterlife reserved for people who commit suicide he learns that his girlfriend, Desiree (Leslie Bibb), is a recent addition as well. With the help of Eugene (She Whigham) and Mikal (Shanyn Sossamon) he goes a journey to find her.I found this movie to be very up-lifting, contradictory to the name, but again I think Happy Campers would be a better fit for the title. If this film has popped on on your radar for whatever reason don't skirt around it because of the title or subject matter. You will be pleasantly surprised and feel oddly happy after watching it.

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. The potential that this idea could have had, not only for an interesting storyline, but also for dark humour, is undeniable. So my friends, I was distressed as I could hear the credits about the roll, reflecting on what a poor job had been done handling this movie.It failed for multiple reasons, both big and small. The most obvious reason was laziness. It seemed as if the people behind this movie, after coming up with the brilliant idea of a suicide after-world, just figured the movie would write itself. This sort of storyline, so far removed from the mundane, requires creativity more than anything to drive it. What kills this movie is that the audience comes into it excited (presuming they know the basic idea) and expects the movie to deliver something very fresh and innovative, and I'll admit, some of the first dialogue we hear just sounds so poetic we really believe we're in for something special here. But we're not. And slowly the film unwinds and loses its magic.More sympathy was needed to evoke what the director wanted out of Mikal. We didn't get it. Zia was interesting at first, but soon became overshadowed in every scene he was next to Eugene, who, unfortunately, mumbled most of his lines. The plot, which could have gone in many, many unexpected directions, did the expected! It turned into an adventure-esque story about a boy looking for his love. The result is some bizarre Wizard of Oz type storyline with the introduction of a metaphysical cult leader who signified, by the sheer fact he was put into this film, that Dukic lost complete control of the story he was trying to develop. The film slowly spirals from fresh and interesting to lame and predictable, and it really is a pain for those of us who can envision what this movie might have been.There was mention early on in the film concerning what might happen to an inhabitant of this world if they were to commit suicide again. It was to the audience's great dissatisfaction, especially since there was opportunity to explore this question, that it was never even slightly answered.Of course, the movie wasn't all bad. There were some excellent scenes. There were some very funny parts, like the black hole underneath the seat and a handful of scenes featuring Shea Whigham's character. It was a great addition to the suicide-world that people couldn't physically smile, and that there weren't any stars in the sky, however, more similar additions were badly lacking. The ending was as cliché as they come; very unfortunate seeing as this movie should have done everything it could have to ward clichés off. I would recommend the movie because I feel the whole idea of a suicide after-world is worth seeing. And I also hope, after some have seen this film, that a generation of filmmakers might want to tackle this very idea and give it the justice it deserves. It is a big let down, for sure, but not by any means unbearable. All in all, it's a Perfect Guideline for how not to make this movie - let's hope someone takes a second stab at it, or two, the possibilities are well worth it.