The Skeleton Twins Review

Throughout the year, a number of film festivals command the attention of the movie-loving world, and a much greater number of them pass without most people noticing.  The big ones - there are maybe seven or eight that I'd put in the category - each have a distinct personality, one that can be discerned even by those of us not fortunate enough to have ever attended.  Cannes is the stage for prestige, where capital-G Great movies go to awe critics and never find wide audiences.  Toronto is a giant, amorphous blob of Oscar hopefuls and some more mainstream stuff (along with its fair share of weird - fest is huge).  SXSW is hip as hell, what with its musical stylings and being in Austin.

And then there's Sundance, the first major festival each year that usually bears at least one or two movies that make a major mark, not necessarily at the box office (though that definitely happens), but at least with the critics and awards groups.  But, oddly, the movies that make the biggest impression tend to deviate a bit from typical Sundance fare: Boyhood is a great example this year.  Most of the movies that blare their Sundance acceptance with pride in trailers and on posters fall often fall into similar patterns and tones.  There are certain movies that, whilst watching, you just know had to play in Park City.

The Skeleton Twins is one such movie.  Craig Johnson's tale of estranged siblings reconnecting is the quintessential Sundance movie.  Its quirkiness is overwrought, its tone is perhaps described as "hipster melancholia," and it grapples with big issues without necessarily saying too much.  The epitome of a Sundance movie is about attitude, an attempt at coolness that feels a few years too late.  The Skeleton Twins, with its weighty subject matter and plethora of underwater imagery, fits the mold nicely.

Thankfully, though, Johnson's film serves as a reunion for Saturday Day Night alumni (and all-time all-stars) Kristen Wiig and Bill Hader.  The actors are so good on their own, and so vibrant together, that The Skeleton Twins' general lack of substance and pretentious technique fade into the background.  On the back of his actors, Johnson weaves a tale that is sometimes touching, often funny, and briefly brilliant.

Part of the reunion's magic comes from seeing Wiig and Hader take on such different roles than we're used to seeing them play.  Hader's Milo is a failed actor who also fails at taking his own life, and - upon returning to his hometown - tries to resume a relationship with the teacher (Ty Burrell) he hooked up with while in high school.  Wiig's Maggie is on the verge of suicide herself when she gets the call about Milo's hospitalization, leading the estranged siblings to reunite after a decade apart.  Just as Milo and Maggie have to feel each other out, figure out what has changed and what remains the same, so there's also a sense of Hader and Wiig discovering new things about each other's abilities.  Very few scenes even come close to anything that would've ever been on SNL, however funny they may be.  These are fresh, exciting muscles they're flexing, and it's especially eye-opening in Hader's case; long-gone are the days of his colorful caricatures.  His Milo is complex, dejected, fragile, uncomfortably real.

The familial dysfunction is only part of the larger picture, which unfortunately doesn't amount to much more.  Infidelity, lingering love, mental illness, and dreams that haven't - and may never - come true all take their moment in the spotlight.  There's a lot of great thematic material, but it unfortunately doesn't all mesh into a meaningful shape.  Its this fatty tissue that weighs down The Skeleton Twins' spritely bones.  The wonderful lead performances (and a strong supporting turn from Luke Wilson as Maggie's go-getter husband) salvage a film that strives for hipness, and meaning, but ends up more of a blathering square that only occasionally stumbles upon a moment of clarity, or even flirts with profundity.  If Johnson gets a firmer handle on his articulation in the future, we will be in for something special.