Metascore
62 out of 100

Generally favorable reviews - based on 24 Critics

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 14 out of 24
  2. Negative: 1 out of 24
  1. 91
    Wristcutters: A Love Story is a lousy title for a lovely-loony picture about an afterlife for suicides. It's an off-road "road movie" about people who off themselves.
  2. The whole film is cracked, but in a stylish, downtown way.
  3. Reviewed by: Gianni Truzzi
    83
    This delightful piece of whimsy uses its simple premise effectively to gain and keep our attention and to remind us simply that, while this world appears ordinary, it is still unbounded by reality.
  4. 83
    For a film about suicide, Wristcutters is agreeably loopy and game. Dukic is bitterly funny rather than maudlin, and his carefully plotted grunge chic, in addition to being cheap, lends the film a great deal of Jim Jarmusch grime to go with its unmistakable Jim Jarmusch quirk.
  5. 80
    Has an offbeat, absurdist charm that turns a potentially creepy conceit into an odd, touching adventure.
  6. 75
    The result is wholly original, sort of like "The Wizard of Oz" as filtered through the sensibilities of Emir Kusturica, the cult filmmaker and musician.
  7. For a film about suicides, Wristcutters: A Love Story is strangely life-affirming. This film about slackers stuck in limbo between life and death is upbeat in an offbeat way.
  8. A quirky but surprisingly lighthearted dark comedy.
  9. Reviewed by: Ty Burr
    75
    Turns out to be a sweetly grim lark: a road film through Limbo. It takes the self-pity associated with ending one's life and uses it for the purposes of mordantly aware comic fantasy.
  10. 70
    Simultaneously dark and sweet, always a difficult combination to pull off. It views its characters with both archness and affection, and even as it lovingly recalls films of another era it insists that the painful awkwardness of youth is perennial.
  11. 67
    The film has a spry quality, but the jokes are neither funny nor dark enough, the quirky roadside episodes aren't sufficiently outlandish or imaginative, the romantic sparks don't convince and the plotting becomes increasingly silly and tedious. Dukic conjures an air of play and naughtiness, but that's about as deep as he cuts.
  12. 63
    The movie isn't laugh out loud funny, under the circumstances, but it is bittersweet and wistfully amusing; the actors enjoy lachrymosity. We witness the birth of a new genre, the Post-Slasher Movie.
  13. Reviewed by: Jessica Reaves
    63
    Quite a bit darker than most mainstream romantic comedies. As you might not expect, it's also quite a bit more inventive and far wittier than most mainstream romantic comedies.
  14. 63
    It is neither as clever nor as funny nor as inventive as the daring title might lead one to expect.
  15. 60
    Imagine a blend of "The Wizard of Oz," "Beetlejuice" and "Roadside Prophets" and you'll know exactly what Wristcutters is like.
  16. Reviewed by: Staff (Not credited)
    60
    Despite being occasionally hilarious, director Goran Dukic should have toned down the wackiness.
  17. 60
    A well-wrought indie written and directed by Goran Dukic, has to be the kewpie doll of current zombie flicks: Its walking dead are a bunch of attractive slackers whose wounds are largely internal. They've got attitude.
  18. 60
    It's borderline parody of a kind of fey filmmaking popular at crunchy-granola festivals, but the counterfeit aesthetic is ultimately outshone by the life-affirming message.
  19. Reviewed by: Justin Chang
    60
    Though its absurdist inventions occasionally border on twee, this affectionate slow-blooming romance mines an understated vein of comic melancholy that the actors' wistful performances perfectly capture.
  20. Somewhat original and amusing. But only somewhat.
  21. Seems to me, teenage suicide isn't that funny, and nothing in this movie changed my mind.
  22. Like some laid-back distant cousin of Tim Burton, writer-director Goran Dukic manages to balance the ghoulishness with whimsy and melancholy, at least for a while. But the strain is obvious in the story's last third, as the filmmaker struggles toward a resolution that fits the logic of the hero's netherworld.
  23. Reviewed by: Josh Rosenblatt
    40
    But absurdity alone won't get the train into the depot, and no amount of quirky characters floating in their chairs or fish changing colors at random can make up for the film's lack of real humor or meaning. Which is to say, if you're going to make a comedy about suicide, you'd better make sure the jokes land. There are people out there who could use a laugh.
  24. It's described as a black comedy, but you can forget the comedy part. There wasn't so much as a snicker at the screening I attended, though I may have heard a snore or two.
User Score

Generally favorable reviews- based on 42 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 19 out of 21
  2. Negative: 1 out of 21
  1. 8
    Don't let the title of this movie give you the wrong idea, I'll agree with anyone that says it was a bad move on the developer's part. It makes this film seem like some dry, sad, and depressing film, when it's the complete opposite. What I like about this movie is the uniqueness, when I first started watching I was iffy as to the turn out, but I quickly thought, "what an interesting twist!" Somehow, this movie accomplishes making death nothing to be afraid of, and actually quite humorous and casual. I would be giving this movie a higher score if the effects weren't so below par. Which doesn't matter much, considering the rest of the movie is great, but the effects are just dreadful in my opinion. However the acting is refreshing. It's not particularly "incredible," but it's better than overacting, and better than completely inexperienced actors. It's right in between, with a little uniqueness, just like the plot of this movie. I thought the black hole in Eugene's car was a little silly, and completely unnecessary, I didn't get the meaning of it, it just seemed random and unneeded. And another attempt at bad effects. But despite those few set backs, if you're looking for a different movie, that I guarantee you have never seen anything like before, watch Wristcutters: A Love Story. ||Breakdown:||Specific Grade: 83%||Acting: 21/30||Effects: 14/20||Plot: 19/20||Sounds: 14/15||Worth Time: 15/15|| Full Review »
  2. Wrist cutters – A Love Story Wrist cutters, makes us think despair sadness and anger. But Love story, really twists our view upon this movie as it is most definitely...different. The movie is an adaptation of Etgar Keret's dark comic series Kneller's Happy Campers by director Goran Dukic's, and is apparent that Dukic has kept that dark, sort of indie feel to the movie as the comic had. At First glance, the movie seems really retro, nothing to explosive, but as I mentioned above different. By different i mean giving the audience a feeling and atmosphere during the screenplay that we can’t quite put our finger upon. Big Con of the movie at first glance is the very boring and non gripping start which nearly made me just turn the off switch...Lucky I gave this a second chance. The movie begins with Patrick Fugit who plays our main character Zia, my first impressions of him were bland, which I can understand at first...yeah he killed himself but he’s a main character he has to attempt to grab our attention and pull us into the plot. This guy was so boring I’m sure I never seen his face change expression. Anyway, after Zia gets up and cleans his whole house, he enters the bathroom and slits his wrists letting us viewers enter the plot (this is probably the only time he does this or one of the few) He ends up in a world with everyone who has took their own lives. When our main character is explaining his new life to us the world seems to have no life, all just despaired and miserable. Where it’s not even possible to smile. This made me sit back and really think wow, could I even imagine that? Well, I could but would never endure it which allows Zia to have my greatest sympathy (which is hard at times). Fugit then meets a Russian guy at the bar called Eugene played by Shia Whigham. After the long sob story from Zia that he misses his girlfriend, who has apparently killed herself too! He drags him to search for her. I do understand that travelling is a main component in the movie but at times it was a little too boring. The only memorable, somewhat exciting things that happened was the girl hitchhiking, who is Mikal played by Shannyn Sossamon – she plays quite a big part in this story as the ‘Love Interest’. The other is a hole underneath the passenger seat that apparently...nothing comes out of. I especially like what the movie is trying to do, but its storyline doesn’t kick in until the end but fortunately the characters are more...enlightened, well most of them anyway. The main character doesn’t do much as I said earlier but when he speaks he gives us a deep insight into what he thinks. Eugene we see as a man close to his family loves his beer and his women. What we see is what we get with Eugene to be honest. Mikal is a little stranger, she keeps asking for the people in charge and insists that she is here by mistake. The 3 characters then meet a man sleeping in the middle of the road( apparently looking for his son) who takes then to a camp, where ‘King’ will a perform a ritual to come back to the normal world. This is where our main character meets his girlfriend again. At this point Zia, doesn’t seem interested her, and won’t stop looking at Mikal as they have drawn real close during their travels. As King is performing his ritual, people in white, known as the people in charge show up and evacuate everyone from the camp. Mikal’s story of being here by mistake turns out to be true and has to be transferred back to the real world. Now knowing this and his friend Eugene moving to Alaska with anew love he says his good bye’s and gets back into his car to travel...yes because we need more of that! Anyway he remembers the hole in the car, which he climbs into and wakes up in a hospital next to Mikal, which was the recurring dream he has been having. Lastly, the actual acting in this film is pretty bland and could have been done so much better, I’m not saying yes use some A-list stars, but actors who can show emotion and not look like they are just reading lines off a screen most of the time. The Plot is attention grabbing at times, but we can’t have a moody plot that just does as its told when it feels like it, but on the other hand the story did have a great twist which did give me satisfaction at the end. But the whole idea of the story is a good one, so give it a watch, you don’t need to believe my opinions, hell you probably already disagree with me. Thanks for reading. Full Review »
  3. ColeT
    9
    One of my favorite road trip movies. I also like it because I get to see Will Arnett play a person very similar to his Arrested Development character. Full Review »