Uniti per sempre

No masterpiece here, just a really nice heart-touching story and some great acting.

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.

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Make no bones about it, the indie comedy-drama "The Skeleton Twins" is a nice little picture about two depressed siblings who reunite after not seeing each other for 10 years, and let's just say that the skeletons soon start coming out of their closets as they reveal much about themselves. The film stars SNL alumnus Bill Hader and Kristen Wiig as Milo and Maggie. Milo is a struggling actor in Los Angeles who unsuccessfully attempts suicide in the film's opening scene. That near death experience brings him to reunite with his estranged sister Maggie who takes Milo to her hometown New York, so he could be in a New York state of mind. Anyways, Maggie is no bright chip of the old block either. She is unhappy in her marriage with a caring, devoted husband. She cheats on her husband and is taking birth control pills behind her husband's back. Maggie is one skeleton twin that is bad to the bone. The performances from Hader and Wiig were outstanding, and it was what brought the film to life. I also thought Luke Wilson was brilliant as Maggie's husband Lance. However, I was not too enamored with Craig Johnson's direction and screenplay of the movie. Too me it was a bit uneven and it might have needed some bare bones exuberance to the filmmaking of "The Skeleton Twins". But I am still recommending this movie as a solid viewing, and no joints are even required to get a semi-cinematic high watching "The Skeleton Twins". *** Average

Always given the bit-part characters in the great Apatow comedies of 6 or 7 years ago, it was a mistake of mine to never take Bill Hadar or Kristen Wiig seriously. Sure, Wiig showed some dramatic weight in Bridesmaids, but that was a light comedy after all. The Skeleton Twins is a lot darker, looking at suicide and failure. Wiig and Hadar's conviction really elevate the material here, especially the latter as her gay brother Milo. Their chemistry is predictably a joy to watch. I just wish I related to it more. I could empathize to a point but I didn't identify with it. It's a little difficult to feel too much sympathy for characters who spend the film feeling sorry for themselves and putting themselves into situations that hurt them. Nevertheless, the consequences the film explores are heartbreaking and authentic, especially the confrontations in its final 20 minutes. It has a lovely visual style to go with the mood with a soft washed out look paired with a great soundtrack, especially a memorable lip syncing scene that whisks you away with it. Perhaps it's too familiar or too irreverent for its own good, but it's certainly a good effort from everyone.

7/10

Laughing at the pain of two siblings who unknowingly attempt to kill themselves at the same time, reunite due to this tragedy after ten years of non-communication.

With Kristen Wig in the movie, I was expecting to laugh, but I think the best laughs came from Bill Hader. His role as Milo, A gay actor who's life is know where near what he expected in high school, sets us on a whirlwind of emotions as he tries to cope with being back home after being away for so long.

Luke Wilson's supporting role as a the likable husband to Kristen Wig's character also gave me a big chuckle as well.

Rounding out the cast is Ty Burrell, best known for his role on Modern Family. It was cool to see him do something out of Type.

It was weird laughing at people with such messed up lives but some say this is the secret to great comedy, that it comes from a dark place. The filmmakers were able to show light coming from this darkness and it was well played in a way that made the twin's issues relateable to us.

It was a great drama with a lot of comedy in it, A must see.