Search
What's Hot
Day-by-Day Fall Schedule
Your Dancing All-Stars Picks
Mary-Kate Olsen's New Beau
Shows We Lost This Year

Wilbur Wants To Kill Himself

2002, Movie, R, 109 mins

Wilbur Wants To Kill Himself: Review

starstarstarstar
Terminal illness, depression, suicide and one very angry young man: If there's such a thing as a kitchen-sink comedy, writer-director Lone Scherfig's sad but often very funny film is it. Wilbur (Jamie Sives) really does want to kill himself; before the opening credits are over he has swallowed a bottle of pills and sticks his head in the oven of his shabby Glasgow bedsit. So far, the only things that have kept him from succeeding are his own ineptitude and the vigilance of his loving older brother, Harbour (Adrian Rawlins). Wilbur is a tough one to love: He's rude to the members of his suicide-support group, unconscionably cruel to the women who express the slightest interest in him and apparently absolutely detests children, despite the fact that he makes his meager living working in a nursery. The recent death of Wilbur and Harbour's father has left them both parentless — Mum died under particularly tragic circumstances when Wilbur was only 4 — and nearly penniless. Their father's only legacy is a dusty used-book store and the adjoining apartment, which Harbour calls home. Unwilling to leave Wilbur unsupervised, Harbour insists that his wee brother move in. Wilbur begrudgingly complies, but attempts to hang himself from Harbour's ceiling as soon as he's alone. This latest attempt is interrupted by Alice, the slightly daffy single mother who supplements her income by selling Harbour books she finds lying around the hospital where she works as a cleaning woman. Alice saves Wilbur's life, but winds up marrying Harbour, though once she and her 10-year-old daughter (the adorable Lisa McKinlay) move in, Alice realizes she might as well be married to both. Melancholy but never maudlin, the film is impeccably acted — Henderson, who suggests a less-antic Helena Bonham Carter, is marvelous — and the somber tone is perfectly balanced by mordantly funny dialogue. Danish director Scherfig, who's best known for her acclaimed 2002 Dogme film ITALIAN FOR BEGINNERS, has such an ear for the nuances born of drizzly Glaswegian afternoons that it's easy to forget Scots-English isn't her first language. At one point Harbour, who must soon face his own mortality, begs Wilbur to tell him what he's seen of the great beyond during his near-death experiences. Wilbur, ever the nihilist, sputters, "Thurr's blankness an' utter silence. It's like bein' in Wales!" Genius. leave a comment --Ken Fox
Are You Watching?
Wilbur Wants To Kill Himself
Loading ...
Advertisement

Our Partners

Advertisement

Related Websites

You might be also interested in the following websites:

Most Popular TV Shows

  1. American Idol
  2. NCIS
  3. Big Bang Theory
  4. Voice
  5. Person of Interest
more popular tv shows

Most Popular Celebrities

  1. Jessica Simpson
  2. Khloe Kardashian
  3. Kate Middleton
  4. Maria Menounos
  5. Kim Kardashian
more popular celebrities

Most Popular Movies

  1. Men In Black 3
  2. Avengers
  3. Battleship
  4. The Dictator
  5. Dark Shadows
more popular movies

Top Videos

  1. Celebrity
  2. Celebrity
  3. The Bachelorette
  4. America's Got Talent
  5. Revenge
more top videos