 | |
List Price: $79.99 | | Label: Sundance Channel Home Entertainment
Salesrank: 75275
Released: December 28, 2004 |
|
| Used Price: $1.99 |
|
MPAA Rating: R (Restricted)
Media: VHS Tape |
|
Editorial Review:
The chronically suicidal Wilbur and his good-hearted big brother Harbour are in their thirties, when their father dies, leaving them with nothing but a worn down second-hand bookshop in Glasgow. Wilbur survives yet another suicide attempt and goes to the hospital, where he meets Horst a cynical psychologist and his empathic head nurse, Moira. Like Harbour, they believe that Wilbur needs a girlfriend. But even though women fall for Wilbur all the time, they can't get close to him. In fact, it is Harbour who falls in love when a shy and intense woman, Alice, enters the lives of the brothers. Alice lives a life in isolation with her little daughter, Mary. She supplements her job as a cleaning lady at the hospital's surgical ward, selling books that the patients have left behind. Little by little, Wilbur, Harbour and Alice become inseparable. Wilbur starts regaining his lust for life, Alice starts to come out of her shell, and Mary starts reading the thousands of books in the second-hand bookshop. Harbour has never been happier, but he carries a deep secret that threatens to surface.
Description of Wilbur Wants to Kill Himself:
That rare thing, decency, shines out of Wilbur (Wants to Kill Himself), a wonderful and dark-humored comedy about a would-be suicide. The depressive Wilbur (Jamie Sives) is the opposite of his big-hearted brother, Harbour (Adrian Rawlins), yet he remains irresistible to women--including Harbour's new live-in girlfriend. Director Lone Scherfig uses the gray-skied Edinburgh location in much the same way she did her native Denmark in the terrific Italian for Beginners; the gloomy setting belies the vaguely magical things that might happen to the characters. Scherfig knows just how to balance different tones (and in a comedy about a suicidal man, she has to), and she's great with actors, even in small roles. Special standouts here are the beaming Rawlins and Danish actor Mads Mikkelsen (King Arthur), as a stoical, chain-smoking doctor. How nice it is to see a movie that makes you feel good without coming on all icky about it. --Robert Horton
Wilbur Wants to Kill Himself Reviews:
honestly????? 
2008-06-05 - A movie about someone trying to kill himself and ...
Honestly? Even the title didn't make me want to see this, but after 20 minutes of boredom, I simply had to turn it off. It was going nowhere, except a land of despair which wasn't interesting in the least.
It's too bad really because the film has a great cast.
Real acting catapults "Wilbur" beyond life and death 
2008-04-14 - Not since last season's "Lars and the Real Girl" have I been charmed with such a delightfully odd,quirky and not overly sentimental piece of life in the 2004 Festival Hit "Wilbur (Wants to Kill Himself)."
What is deceiving about the film's trailer is that you are lead to believe that this is a comedy focused on Wilbur North (an adorable Jamie Sives- (To the Ends of the Earth) who does everything possible to do himself in. Not so! In fact, this film is way deeper and far more drama than it is a comedy. The story concerns itself with two brothers, Harbour and Wilbur North, both orphaned young, both caretakers of sick parents, and both now grown and not connected into anyone. Harbour is the older brother, and Adrian Rawlins (Harry Potter Years 1-5 Limited Edition Gift Set) portrays him with such grace and intuitiveness that rarely this actor gets the chance to do. Harbour is actually the glue of this entire film, running the family bookshop, watching after younger Wilbur, all the while fancying an odd Alice (Shirley Henderson-(Topsy-Turvy) who is a struggling single mother struggling to survive while working as a cleaning lady for the local hospital. The hospital is and will become the link between these three as this Scottish film slowly peals back like an onion. Wilbur is always at the hospital from suicide attempts; Alice is always there cleaning it; and Harbour was always there as the older son who watched his parents die there. When Harbour and Alice connect, Wilbur becomes a part of their existence and comes to live with them. The film then squarely focuses on these three with Alice's daughter as a fourth. But things change drastically when Harbour is diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. The film shifts into intense mode and all of the characters begin becoming completely three-dimensional. By the end of this film, I was totally involved in all of their lives! You can't help it! One of the best ensemble acting films yet! Anyone who is a devotee of UK films and T.V. will recognise all of the actors. This is a chance for them to show their mettle. Highly recommended!
An excellent companion film would be Dominick and Eugene.
tough subjects handled with care
2008-02-18 - I thought it was a brilliant film but not a lighthearted one. I will not provide too much detail as it would ruin the surprises it has in store for the viewer.
This movie packs a seriously emoional punch and it stays with you long after you watch it. One of the main characters, Wilbur, is constantly trying to kill himself. After seeing how unhappy and selfish Wilbur acts, I was thinking that everyone would be better off if he just suceeded already. But I was horrified to later discover the possible cause of Wilbur's constant black moods. We learn that as a child, Wilbur's mother was sickly and constantly escaped her hospital bed to get home to her family only to be dragged back by her husband so she could survive that much longer. The dad told his two small sons that their mom couldn't stay home - it would kill her. In the middle of a cold winter's night, only Wilbur heard the mother knocking on their door. As she was only wearing a thin hospital gown and Wilbur was too afraid to let her in because he thought she would drop dead (his father's words were taken very literally in his child's mind), she froze to death outside their front door. This event changed them all. The father's guilt over what happened, Wilbur's guilt over killing his mother and his older brother's constant sacrifices at his own expense to hold his remaining family together.
Present day finds this family down to the two brothers, Harbour and Wilbur, and we all know one of them is looking for a fast exit. This movie is layered with so many emotional subjects that hit the viewer hard. This story is only too real as we watch Alice (the love interest) struggle with poverty and take care of her daughter all on her own, Harbour not being able to help his Wilbur as he struggles with his inner demons, and Wilbur being hostile to everyone as he lashes out, the male psychiatrist's father/son issues, and every character's loneliness. The scene where Wilbur is off-handedly cruel to Alice's lonely friend from her old job is heartbreaking.
No surprise that the story ends with just one remaining family member. But, it does manage to end on a note of hope. This one family member is not alone, he is rebuilding a family of his own and he owes it all to his brother. The bond of love between family members can be healing, even the deepest of wounds.
A haunting film that stays with you and I highly recommend it but you have to be in the mood for it.
Very good stuff, this. 
2008-01-29 - Wilbur Wants to Kill Himself (Lone Scherfig, 2002)
Why is it, exactly, that some movies that would really be helped by subtitles don't have them, while others do? Scots films, in particular, are notorious for this. My Name Is Joe, Peter Mullan's fantastic flick, was first released without them, but someone figured out right quick that the American release suffered because ninety percent of the audience had no earthy idea what Mullan was saying most of the time. Wilbur Wants to Kill Himself suffers the same way, except no one rectified the error upon the release of the DVD. While you will (hopefully) eventually pick up the accents, unless you are well-used to a thick brogue, you may not be able to figure out what anyone's on about for the first ten or fifteen minutes of this movie. That's a crime, because if you stop watching, you will miss a minor gem of a film.
Harbour (Adrian Rawlins of the Harry Potter franchise) and Wilbur (Love and Other Disasters's Jamie Sives) are brothers who run a bookshop in Glasgow that they inherited from their father. Wilbur, in case you didn't figure it out from the title, is suicidal. Ah, the angst! The brothers are thrown into an uproar when Alice (Shirley Hendersonof the Bridget Jones movies) comes in to sell some books left by patients at the local hospital, where she works (and Wilbur is a frequent guest). Both Harbour and Wilbur fall for her, and her daughter Mary (Lisa McKinlay in her first film role), a bookworm, is enchanted with the store. Soon there's romance, there's drama, there's the well-meaning Alice trying to teach Wilbur how to behave around women so he can land one of the nurses in the suicide ward, who's shown some interest in him, there's Horst (the wonderful Mads Mikkelsen), Wilbur's doctor, there's... oh, just see it.
I opined in my review of Tsotsi about the difference between, in essence, a Lifetime Original Movie and a really good chick flick. Wilbur is a very good example of the latter; the comedy is actually funny, the drama is dramatic (unless it's being played for laughs, like Wilbur's angst), the redemption of the main character feels natural, as opposed to feeling like the product of emotional manipulation. There's a turning point in the film where Wilbur, walking around trying to clear the confusion out of his head, spies a suicide jumping into the river in a place where he had done so before; he jumps in after her and pulls her out. There are so many ways this scene could have gone wrong. Wilbur doesn't eulogize about how he used to be just like her. She doesn't have a sudden change of heart. When Wilbur gets home, covered in water and river grime, and Alice asks him where he's been, the conversation is handled in the most wonderful way possible (it's one of the films' funniest and most understated moments). Scherfig, who co-wrote the film with Anders Thomas Jensen (who would go on to direct the excellent The Green Butchers the same year), really has the touch. And it's just twisted enough that the guys will like it too. ****
Wilbur Ain't Wright
2007-08-12 - With a name like, "Wilbur Wants To Kill Himself," one anticipates an odd movie with a dark sensibility - and it is just that - but it's also a warm, touching movie with an inviting sensibility. The protagonists of WWTKH inhabit a rarified, almost surreal world, but thanks to exceptional acting and direction by Lone Scherfig, who also co-wrote the screenplay, we don't need to be "sold" on it, we simply sink into it like a comfy, overstuffed armchair.
The atmosphere of WWTKH is steeped in melancholy that's prototypically Scottish. Two brothers, Wilbur and Harbour, live is Glasgow, Harbour manages a bookstore left to him by his father. Though perhaps grand once, it now seems to subsist, barely, on the patronage of one customer who resolutely attempts to purchase works by Kipling. These brothers have an achingly sad past, both of their parents died in ways certain to leave deep psychic scars. However, in true Scots fashion, they never discuss the emotional trauma that directs their lives and undermines their tepid attempts at finding happiness.
Wilbur does indeed try to kill himself, several times. For him, ending it all is somewhere between an avocation and a hobby, so much so that the local suicide support group kicks him out. The dynamic between the brothers is drawn, Wilbur is a sad loser - Harbour is resilient and strong - an endlessly forgiving and loving caretaker. Into this odd dynamic strolls another casualty of the storm, Alice, and her enchanting daughter. Before long Alice and Harbour are married, and it would seem that this newfound stability might have a positive effect on Wilbur as well - creating a safe, extended family.
I won't go beyond this. WWTKH is not a film of shocking plot twists, but it has its surprises and you should be allowed to enjoy them as they unfold. At times I had the feeling of watching people who had survived a shipwreck, bobbing on the water, desperately clutching at flotsam and jetsam. I found it virtually impossible to judge any of them, not even Wilbur, whose obsession with suicide at times seemed a bit narcissistic. Most likely it is the director's hand that accounts for this, the extreme gentility of this movie. There is perhaps a little bit of Dear, Frankie here, another "small movie" set in Scotland that touches the heart.
Many splendid secondary characters, notably the German doctor - completely believable, and the nurse with eyes for Wilbur. Truly a wonderful and obscure gem worth tracking down.
