The Skeleton Twins
(2014)
(SPOILERS) Another entry in the burgeoning field of comedy
actors receiving kudos for testing their serious thesping chops in indie
dramedies. Craig Johnson’s second feature, aboutg twins reuniting in the midst
of deep personal disarray, is well observed but deeply unremarkable. What lifts
it are the performances of Kristen Wiig and Bill Hader, evidencing, if any was
needed, that they can bring the genuine and sensitive with the same
accomplishment as their more familiar larking about.
Johnson and Mark Heyman (Black
Swan) set up a tantalising “unbeknownst” opener that never really follows
through with the gumption it might; synchronicitously, Magggie (Wiig) is about
to take a load of pills just as she gets a call that Milo (Hader), whom she
hasn’t seen in a decade, has been hospitalised following a suicide attempt.
The picture’s ensuing touchstones are a mixture of the recognisably
drama-feeding (lives that never explored their potential; a home broken when
their father committed suicide; a sister stuck in boring but reliable marriage
to Lance (Luke Wilson), conducting impulsive affairs; a flamboyantly gay brother
failing at his acting career) but occasionally surprises.
The subplot involving Milo’s illicit relationship with a
former teacher (Ty Burrell) doesn’t play out quite as expected; while Maggie
points to the fact that Milo was fifteen at the time and he constitutes a child
molester, the most condemnatory behaviour we see is that he only really lets
Milo back into his life in order to get his script passed on to Milo’s agent (a
succinct means of illustrating that he was and is using Milo).
Lance is the very definition of dependable, but in Wilson’s
capable hands he gradually becomes something more (his improvised conversation
with Maggie about his shoes, “a hybrid of
shoes and a foot”). There’s a scene with their mother (Joanna Gleeson) that
probably overdoes the flaky New Ager who has zero interest in her former life
(she has a new family), but is effective nevertheless (“I’m sending you the light”). It goes to the heart of the picture,
that no one lives their dream life, but neither burying nor wallowing in
troubles represents a path through the minefield.
As ever with movies off this ilk, resorting to shorthand
clichés renders it less effective. You know the type of thing; childhood
flashbacks, music montages, set piece bonding scenes. Milo working for Lance
and picking up twigs delicately, rather than armfuls of branches, does indeed identify
him as (in his own words) “another
classic gay cliché”. The Halloween dress-up as a recreation of their
childhood, only to be interrupted by Maggie realising Milo has resumed a
relationship with her Rich (his teacher) runs the well-oiled route of comedy to
drama and suffers from such calculation; the symbolism with the dead goldfish, saving
Maggie in the pool, or the reversal of who’s driving who (coming to who’s rescue)
at the end is also less than subtle. Still, the Sundance jury must have thought
it was doing something very right as they gave it Best Screenplay.
As such, it’s the improvised moments that shine, as the
naturalness of the stars is allowed to break out (the Marley and Me conversation, nitrous oxide in the dental office) The
glorious highlight is Milo and (an initially reluctant) Maggie miming to
Starship’s Nothing’s Gonna Stop Us Now.
Hader probably has the more difficult job, required to walk
a line in not falling back on the merely campy. Wiig might be more impressive
though, as she is required to rein it in for much of the time. To Johnson’s
credit, he’s unafraid of depicting less than likeable protagonists following
their own self-centred paths, others around them be damned.
While the picture is guilty at times of over statement, it
allows itself the subtlety of action rather than illustration in arriving at a
point where these two can only be whole by being together. Less venerable is
the general trend to formula indie fare, whereby pictures follow the same
equivalent beats of the big Hollywood comedies; for all its presumed edginess a
picture like The Skeleton Twins is
ultimately playing things just as safe.
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