Wilbur - Das Leben ist eins der schwersten

i think sense of humor is just SUCH an individual thing. perhaps the more subtle the comedic approach, the more difficult to identify and align with. I myself found this film totally engaging, amusing and lovely. i did not know, at the time of viewing, that the director had made 3 or 4 other of my favorite films, On Our Own and Italian for Beginners being the most recent. The story itself is small but it's the screenplay and that quirky funny pervading sense of humor, that IS the film. two handsome, intelligent,gentle, interesting brothers have a deep love for each other. one is the older and responsible one, who runs the inherited family used book shop. the younger one makes a career out of trying to kill himself. a sweet sad woman- with- daughter comes into their lives and the shag rug becomes a tapestry. all the acting is spot-on. the TERRIFIC screenwriters (the director being one of the two)had me caring about all of the characters. the silences, as much as the dialogue, are perfectly carried off and i really didn't feel there was a false out-of-place moment in the entire film. i saw the film last night (thank heavens for good public-library film-buyers)and the characters are in my mind today.i've a delighted smile on my face. a big 10 for me.

Synopsis:

Wilbur (Jamie Sives) wants to die, kind of. So every now and then he tries to commit suicide. You know: Pills, wrist slitting, hanging that sort of thing.

He has nothing that ties him to life, but a brother named Harbour.

The brother (Adrian Rawlins) owns a book store, which was left to him by his father. He's a friendly, charming and responsible man, who's flirting with one of two regular costumers, a girl name Alice.

Alice (Shirley Henderson) is a lonely woman, who works as cleaning personal in a hospital, in order to support her daughter Mary (Lisa McKinlay).

Well. Girl meets book store owner, and they fall in love or whatever. So they get married. Meanwhile Wilbur continues his obsession with trying to end himself. The thing about Wilbur is, that he has sex-appeal which is quite... well... appealing. And don't think that Alice hasn't noticed.

Which creates the dilemma, doesn't it? Do we want the older, responsible, nice, kind, calm brother, or his sexual beast of an opposite, Wilbur?

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My review

Set in beautiful, but depressing Scotland, Lone Scherfig (The director of Dogma 8: Italiensk for begyndere) has made a small film about love. The story itself is pretty average, but the way this film treats suicide, and the absurdity of wanting to finish life, makes it worth watching. The film is made with subtle humor, tenderness and love.

Well acted this one is. I liked the characters. It is well filmed, also. Almost every scene takes place in the bed, in the bathroom, in the book store, or the hospital. All places, that cry out desperate decadence. You can actually sence death in the scenery, which is no coincidence. A major theme of this film is death and - as a direct consequence - life.

What is not so good about this film is, that it is about virtually nothing. There is almost no development, and unlike films of who are kindred in pace (Virgin Suicides, The Ice Storm) the story is way too structured, and too narrow to just watch and experience. There is a point this film is trying to make, which is a shame. A bit less narrative could have done a film, which is about so little, very good.

Still it is a good film. Very good. I am beginning to use 5 as average. 10 as perfect and 1 as complete rubbish. And giving that, I will give "Wilbur wants to die/Wilbur begår selvmord" 8. A lot of thought and care has gone into this little film, and it does show. From good cinematografy and a good script, to a well polished, melancholic score, this film is worth viewing. It won't kill you, even if you will.

8 of 10.

Interesting film, but this viewer was far less impressed than the Scandinavian reviewers. Performances were great overall, though some deliveries of the clumsiest lines clunked (and Henderson's babydoll voice really irritates) Some great scenes, but the black comedy is uneven (lost in translation?)/ script patchy. All that bloody backstory for Wilbur-- was Harbour meant to be justifying the selfishness of his brother or.... what? Scherfig does a wonderful job in finding the humanity of difficult, odd characters (in 'Italian for beginners' too) Wish she'd cut the stuff that didn't work because it tries to hard to be odd. And more Mikkelsen please... what he evokes in the twitch of an eyebrow-- much more impressive than all that talk. Interesting but flawed... a director to watch, however.

"Wilbur" is a pretty hard movie to describe. It has many redeeming qualities, but in the end, I just didn't like it and wished I hadn't seen it.

It's another quirky comedy/drama, and it fits well into that category. I thought the writing was very good, and the comedy made me laugh out loud several times. However, the movie tries to get you to connect with the characters, and for me, it was impossible to do that. Although they're all likable people, the only one who really got to me was Wilbur's brother. If you have seen or will see the film, I'm sure you'll know why.

I wanted to like this movie, and I still just couldn't. It's very funny at times, and sometimes touching, but I left the theater being more angry and repulsed than relieved and entertained.

It's close, but unfortunately, no cigar.

5/10

I liked this film but I would've liked it much more if the dialog had been kicked up a few decibels and the musical score had been nearly killed off. I watched on DVD, so fortunately, I had the option of pressing hard on volume up during the dialog and pressing hard and fast on volume down and sometimes even mute during the music. Not that the score was distasteful at all, in fact, I thought it was good and very appropriate for the film. It was just that the volume itself was inappropriate. Perhaps the sound editor was afraid moviegoers would drift off asleep and s/he felt it dutiful to blast the sound out to ensure viewers wakeful alertness. At any rate, movie-good, sound editing-bad, very bad.