Most movie versions of the afterlife stick to tried-and-true notions: Heaven is a cloud-filled wonderland populated by angels in long, flowing robes, while Hell is a lake of fire echoing with the screams of the damned. What if, however, those who decided to take their own life ended up in a place that looked exactly like the world they just left – only shabbier? That’s the central conceit of Goran Dukic’s Wristcutters: A Love Story, an adaptation of Etgar Keret’s novella that imagines a suicide victim consigned for eternity to a skid row filled with sixth-rate pizzerias and terminally leaky flats. Did we mention the movie is also a romantic comedy?
‘The thing about Etgar’s book that got me was how it took on the idea that death is the answer to all your problems,’ Dukic, 36, says over the phone from Los Angeles. ‘And that when you die, you don’t go to someplace magical; you end up in a shithole. It had this unique, funny sensibility about death and yet it’s somehow optimistic in an odd way.’
A graduate of the American Film Institute, the Croatian-born Dukic was introduced to Keret at a book reading and immediately lobbied the author for the rights. ‘He was already getting a lot of offers from production companies in Germany and France, so I was trying to put something together quickly. Then a few months later, Etgar told them that he wanted to see a script before he committed to anybody. I was the only one who’d written anything, so thankfully, I won by default.’
Dukic’s dry, Eastern European sense of humor is a good match for the Israeli writer’s absurdist prose, and the film tempers Wristcutters’ gallows-humour scenario with a genuine sweetness once our deceased hero, Zia – played by Almost Famous’s Patrick Fugit – suddenly finds himself with a purpose in his (post)life. Shortly after he opened his veins in despair over a failed relationship, his distraught ex-girlfriend took a flying leap off a building and is now stuck somewhere in this run-down no- man’s-land as well. So Zia decides to hit the road with his musician pal, Eugene (Shea Whigham), and find his beloved.
Along the way, they pick up a hitchhiker (Shannyn Sossamon) who, since her drug overdose was an accident, wants to appeal her suicide status to the powers that be. Guess who will hit it off during their quest for salvation?
‘I got a phone call from my agents,’ Fugit, 24, recalls. ‘They said, “We’re sending you this script about two people who fall in love. And they’re both dead.” I didn’t need to read it at that point; just count me in. I’ve got a pretty dark sense of humour, so I understood what Goran was going for. But there were a lot of blank looks when I tried to explain the story to other people: “Yeah, it’s a road movie slash romance that’s sweet and hilarious. Also, it takes place in this suicide afterlife.” The response was always, “Wow, Patrick, that sounds like a romp!” Can you imagine pitching that to studio executives? They’d act like you just farted and sneezed at the same time.’
Indeed, fans who caught Wristcutters at its 2006 Sundance premiere found themselves in similar situations when extolling the movie’s virtues. Despite positive reception at Park City and in other festivals, distributors weren’t sure they could sell Dukic’s pitch-black comedy to the public. Finally, After Dark Films, known primarily for releasing horror flicks, picked it up last spring (it’s being released through Autonomous Films, the company’s non-horror subsidiary). Within months, the company had generated an uproar due to talk of a promotional campaign that would feature various characters doing themselves in. Suicide-prevention groups cried foul and the idea was nixed, but Dukic says he’s still hearing concerns that the movie will present self-destroying acts as hip.
‘Yeah, there have been a number of letters from people who’ve lost loved ones,’ the director admits. ‘“I had a friend who killed himself, that’s not funny.” No, that’s tragic. But we’re not trying to be insensitive; the nature of black comedy is using humor to deal with tragedy. Look at M*A*S*H the movie and the TV show are now considered classics, and it was all about people cracking jokes while operating on war victims! If anything, I think the movie is anti-suicide. Your problems don’t go away if you take your own life. They follow you wherever you go, so deal with them.’
Wristcutters: A Love Story is out on DVD now.
