Wristcutters: A Love Story

NEW YORK (CNS) -- "Wristcutters: A Love Story" (Autonomous) is a gritty, downbeat drama set in a purgatorial afterlife reserved for suicides. Despite an interesting premise -- and a welcome moral stance -- the film soon becomes random and visually uncomfortable. Ultimately, it becomes stupefying.

As payback for his girlfriend, Desiree (Leslie Bibb), dumping him, a young slacker named Zia (Patrick Fugit) slits his wrists. He discovers, however, that the punishment for suicide is confinement in a grungy, tedious underworld not much different from the one he abandoned. He finds he still needs to work at a menial job, and must share his new quarters with an annoying roommate. Learning that Desiree has also killed herself, Zia sets off to find her. He is joined by Eugene (Shea Whigham), a failed Russian rock musician whose entire family took their own lives.

Hitchhiking along the way is Mikal (Shannyn Sossamon), a young woman who insists that, having died of an unintentional overdose, she is there by mistake. She is in search of the "people in charge" who can remedy this error.

Driving at night with damaged headlights, the three new friends almost run over Kneller (Tom Waits), the leader of a nearby commune. While waiting for someone to repair their car, they also encounter a self-proclaimed messiah (Will Arnett) who is preparing to sacrifice himself in order to transport his followers to a better place. (We learn it's possible to take one's life in this world, too, though the next one may be even worse.)

The result of his proposed altruism is left ambiguous. So too is the extent of the intended analogy with Christianity.

Writer-director Goran Dukic's film, based on a novella by Israeli writer Etgar Keret, is engaging for the first 15 minutes or so, and its resolute rejection of suicide is heartening. But the plot meanders, and the relentlessly ugly environment through which the characters travel becomes increasingly off-putting.

This desolate, littered landscape, rendered still harsher by Vanja Cernjul's cinematography, is as punishing for viewers as for Zia and company. By the time the film reaches its admittedly clever final scene, you may be too depressed -- or exhausted -- to care.

The film contains brief upper female nudity, much rough and crude and some crass language, four uses of profanity, graphic wounds, blood and a suicide theme. The USCCB Office for Film & Broadcasting classification is L -- limited adult audience, films whose problematic content many adults would find troubling. The Motion Picture Association of America rating is R -- restricted. Under 17 requires accompanying parent or adult guardian.

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Copyright (c) 2007 Catholic News Service/U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops