In Wristcutters: A Love Story, director Goran Dukic weaves a very bizarre story about love and suicide. Wristcutters is a film which, somehow, manages to blend dark comedy and sweetly optimistic sentiment into a charming and thoroughly unconventional love story.
The main character of the film is Zia (Patrick Fugit), a young man who's heartbroken after his girlfriend breaks up with him. In the film's first scene Zia commits suicide by slitting his wrists. After he dies, Zia awakes in an afterlife entirely populated by individuals who have committed suicide. Even stranger than this is that Zia discovers that the world of this afterlife is exactly like the old world, just a little bit worse. The skies are always overcast, the cars are all run down, and no-one has a good apartment. Zia spends time in the afterlife working at a pizza place (a job slightly worse than the one he had when he was alive) and hanging out with his Russian friend, Eugene (whose entire family has committed suicide and lives together in a small house).
But when Zia hears news that his ex-girlfriend has committed suicide, he sets out on a road trip with Eugene to find her. Along the way, the two pick up a beautiful hitch-hiker (Shannyn Sossamon) and have adventures in this bizarre world. Together these three encounter meta-physical events, floating pets, and bottomless pits underneath the passenger seat of a Chevy.
It's a veeeeery weird little film with a lot of dark humor (especially when the film flashes back to how characters committed suicide as they appear). But as the film develops, traditional elements of romantic comedy start to emerge. By the time the end rolls around, Wristcutters becomes very sweet and optimistic. The relationships between the three main characters say a lot about friendship and love. And beyond that, the world of Wristcutters is an intricate one which is very worth exploring.
Apparently Goran Dukic believes that there's always a chance to find love in life, even if you've already ended it.
