In The Skeleton Twins, director Craig Johnson steers comedy darlings Bill Hader and Kristen Wiig into a new realm: indie drama. The story focuses on a set of aging twins as they face discontentment with their lives. The film opens with simultaneous suicide attempts, switching between the estranged Milo and Maggie. Milo is hospitalized while Maggie's depression goes unnoticed, and she is faced with the task of taking her brother into her home despite her weak marriage with overly-optimistic husband Lance (Luke Wilson). They find that, in their separation from each other, neither has accomplished much or achieved any happiness. Maggie is keeping secrets and a box full of guilt while Milo is let down by his old life in LA, and it may kill them both. In an emotional narrative, Wiig and Hader prove just how extensive their acting abilities extend as Milo and Maggie provide an ending of life resurrection.
The Skeleton Twins is, essentially, a matured version of I'll Give You The Sun. Please don't think it went unnoticed that I just reviewed the same story twice. But where I'll Give You The Sun is art in literature, The Skeleton Twins features two of the most powerful acting performances I've ever seen. Hader and Wiig are so difficult to see in a drama at first but become hard to see as anything but ridiculously talented drama actors. The story is something sad and sweet and, in the end, terribly uplifting. The performances only add to the film's impact. There were moments that made me laugh harder than I can ever remember laughing at an independent film, particularly the twin's duet of "Nothing's Gonna Stop Us Now". It provided comic relief in a movie that was intense until it's last 3 minutes. Basically, everything about The Skeleton Twins was right.
The Skeleton Twins is, essentially, a matured version of I'll Give You The Sun. Please don't think it went unnoticed that I just reviewed the same story twice. But where I'll Give You The Sun is art in literature, The Skeleton Twins features two of the most powerful acting performances I've ever seen. Hader and Wiig are so difficult to see in a drama at first but become hard to see as anything but ridiculously talented drama actors. The story is something sad and sweet and, in the end, terribly uplifting. The performances only add to the film's impact. There were moments that made me laugh harder than I can ever remember laughing at an independent film, particularly the twin's duet of "Nothing's Gonna Stop Us Now". It provided comic relief in a movie that was intense until it's last 3 minutes. Basically, everything about The Skeleton Twins was right.