The Skeleton Twins-2014

Director Craig Johnson

Starring Bill Hader, Kristen Wiig

Scott’s Review #179

Reviewed October 2, 2014

Grade: A-

The Skeleton Twins (2014) is a tremendous, character-driven, family drama that focuses on character development rather than standard plot devices.

The film stars Bill Hader and Kristen Wiig from Saturday Night Live, but don’t be fooled into thinking The Skeleton Twins is a light comedy; it is not.

There are laugh-out-loud scenes throughout, but this is a serious story about depression, suicide, and anger, and at times, very dark.

Wiig plays Maggie, a woman in her thirties who seemingly has it all.

Lance, her handsome, loyal husband, played by Luke Wilson, adores her. She has a stable job as a dental hygienist and lives a quiet, quaint life in upstate New York- seemingly enjoying a happy middle-class existence.

Hader plays Milo, Maggie’s estranged twin brother, who lives in Los Angeles and is a struggling actor with no agent, reduced to waiting tables in a lousy restaurant.

Presumably, just out of a relationship, Milo attempts suicide by slitting his wrists.

Maggie flies to Los Angeles to visit Milo in the hospital and invites him to recuperate with Maggie and Lance in New York.

Having grown up as best friends, they reconnect once Milo moves in.

The Skeleton Twins is so jam-packed with interesting stories, both current and backstory, that it becomes effortless to fall in love with Maggie and Milo.

When the twins were fourteen, their father committed suicide by jumping off a bridge, a father they were very connected to.

Their mother, played by Joanna Gleason, was a horrible mother growing up and, in present times, is a hippie involved in an interracial marriage. She awkwardly visits Maggie and Milo and attempts to heal them through meditation.

Other character history is revealed.

Milo, who is gay, was molested by his teacher when he was fifteen years old, a teacher he is still in love with, and is wonderfully played against type by Ty Burrell.

Maggie has carried on affairs with various men throughout her marriage to Lance and is secretly using birth control pills to avoid becoming pregnant. Lance happily thinks they are trying to conceive.

Milo and Maggie are incredibly layered and well-written. They are both damaged from a difficult childhood, suffer from depression, and now only have each other.

Scenes in The Skeleton Twins range from hysterical- a scene in a dentist’s office with laughing gas rolling on the floor and a lip-syncing scene to the hit “Nothing’s Gonna Stop Us Now”- to wonderful.

Dramatic and shocking scenes where Milo and Maggie go at each other with gusto, dredging up childhood wounds, are brilliantly acted by Wiig and Hader.

The chemistry between Wiig and Hader is incredible, and both actors successfully balance hysterical comedy with dark drama, which impressed me.

Luke Wilson is great in support as the straight-laced, nice guy married to Maggie.

A slight criticism: the character of Milo is written as stereotypically gay- man-hungry and hardly a man’s man. He has trouble clearing brush because, presumably, he is too girly to handle the task.

I wish more films would avoid these stereotypes.

Ty Burrell’s character, Rich, is so complex that I wish they’d explored him more: as a gay man, how can he work with his girlfriend while harboring so many secrets? Is he still in love with Milo despite repeatedly pushing him away?

I would have loved more depth to this complex character.

After the film, I felt the filmmakers didn’t go as dark as they could have, and audiences will know what I mean after the final scene.

There is no fairy tale ending either.

Milo and Maggie are damaged goods who only have each other, making for a dynamic, character-rich film.