Well known for their comedic work on long-running hit television show Saturday Night Live, actors Kristen Wiig and Bill Hader come together for something a little bit different in The Skeleton Twins. With Luke Wilson and Ty Burrell supporting, this film cements these four comedy favourites as dramatic actors in their own right.
Hader and Wiig as twins Milo and Maggie
The Skeleton Twins is about estranged fraternal twins Milo (Bill Hader) and Maggie (Kristen Wiig) who reconnect after 10 years because of a failed suicide attempt. The film highlights the fact that sometimes, no matter how much you want it to, life doesn't play out as you'd planned.
Hader shines as sarcastic, self-deprecating, failed actor Milo who moves in with Maggie and her husband Lance (Luke Wilson) on doctors' recommendations. Wiig is an entirely convincing Maggie, a woman that has it all: the perfect house, the perfect husband and the grown up job. Or does she?
The Skeleton Twins is a touching, real-life portrayal of mental illness, suicide and surviving the journey that is life. Although the subject matter is serious, the film is not short on humour. There are lots of laugh out loud moments that regularly diffuse the tension and lift the spirits. So much so that I left the cinema wondering if The Skeleton Twins is more black comedy than drama.
An attestation of its quality, The Skeleton Twins won the US Dramatic Screenwriting Award at the 2014
Sundance Film Festival. This film won't disappoint appreciators of existential drama, lovers of dark humour, and people that just adore a good lip-synced power ballad. It's well written, with punchy dialogue and sharp wit that doesn't miss a beat. Sneeze and you'll miss it.
The Skeleton Twins opens nationally on Thursday September 25th.
