The Skeleton Twins

2014 "Family is a cruel joke."
6.8| 1h32m| R| en| More Info
Released: 12 September 2014 Released
Producted By: Duplass Brothers Productions
Country: United States of America
Budget: 0
Revenue: 0
Official Website: http://www.skeletontwinsmovie.com
Synopsis

Estranged twins Maggie and Milo coincidentally cheat death on the same day, prompting them to reunite and confront the reasons their lives went so wrong. As the twins' reunion reinvigorates them, they realize the key to fixing their lives may just lie in repairing their relationship.

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Reviews

GazerRise Fantastic!
Kailansorac Clever, believable, and super fun to watch. It totally has replay value.
Nicole I enjoyed watching this film and would recommend other to give it a try , (as I am) but this movie, although enjoyable to watch due to the better than average acting fails to add anything new to its storyline that is all too familiar to these types of movies.
Guillelmina The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.
merelyaninnuendo A Skeleton TwinsA fascinating uptake with a newer perspective on dysfunctional family drama through a siblings' vision, is a smarter way to create a light but a deeply intense feature. The writing is smart, grippingly and thoroughly entertaining except for an issue on the structure of the script that follows a rudimentary process which undermines the feature as it grows predictable as it ages on screen. Craig Johnson; the screenwriter and the director, has done a marvellous work on executing the anticipated vision on screen along with amazing visuals as it is shot beautifully too. The performance by both the lead actors is stupendous but the highlight of it would be Kirsten Wiig who is the real game changer in here. Bill Hader and Kirsten Wiig's chemistry is the crucial point in here as all the connections and conversations among the "siblings" should come off believable and fortunately they are convincing too. Despite of raising fragile and dark topics, the feature is light and breezy for the most part of it which shows the awareness of the makers, as the core relation projected in here is of twins. A Skeleton Twins has a crooked childhood, troubled twins and justifying actions occurring on screen throughout its almost 90 minutes that is utterly palpable to its tone.
leethomas-11621 Intelligent, well-acted relationship drama. Ended suddenly, for me. Always enthralling. Maybe stretched the limits at times but a lot had to be covered in a relatively short time.
rkhen Others here have done a good job of covering this unusually-casted, surprisingly-strong movie, but for those in a hurry, here's my list of reactions: 1. Bill Hader joins Will Forte ("Nebraska") on the list of latter-day SNLers who have a real talent for sensitive, believable drama. That all by itself is worth the price of admission.2. The chemistry between Hader and Wiig is a spectacle all by itself. And kudos to the writers for scripting a remarkably realistic sibling relationship.3. Luke Wilson's role as husband/brother-in-law avoids the usual smear of white-bread, sports-bar types as dumb or annoying. Though his character is secondary, a case could be made that he's the hero of this movie. 4. Daring, divergent depiction of a teacher/student romantic relationship, probably closer to real life than the after school special clichés we're usually handed. Without endorsing their behaviour, script and actors make the characters human and fallible, rather than evil and/or abused. 5. This Duplass Brothers film has a very similar atmosphere to their "Safety Not Guaranteed". (That's a good thing.) Finally: 6. Unusual, believable ending, open-ended enough to keep us wondering, promising enough for comfort. Conclusion: see it. Bill Hader, and the Hader/Wiig dynamic, are must-love.
Blake Peterson Kristen Wiig and Bill Hader are such comedy wunderkinds that a dramatic role sounds like a waste. We can picture Wiig screwing around a room with the pizazz of Carol Burnett, with Hader, alongside her, spitting out wicked lines in a wacky voice. Though The Skeleton Twins has a handful of funny moments, it is first and foremost a gloomy drama; we may all love Wiig and Hader's antics on Saturday Night Live, but they are blessed with some serious acting talent. It's the Double Indemnity to their Ball of Fire, the War and Peace to their Sabrina.Twins Maggie (Wiig) and Milo (Hader) have been estranged for 10 years. They're reacquainted, however, when Maggie receives a call from an unknown number; she is informed that Milo has attempted suicide. In one hand, she holds the phone. In the other is a smattering of pills. It's a coincidence that seems as though God set it up just for them. Maggie immediately invites Milo to stay with her and her picture perfect husband, Lance (Luke Wilson), in their suburban New York home; but just as they begin to reconnect, they are forced to face their innermost demons.Milo has been living in Los Angeles for a decade, desperate to become a famous actor. He's seen little success, his life marred with constant disappointment. Maggie knows that she has married a good man, but she is bored with her comfortable, predictable marriage; she's partaken in several affairs and has purposely destroyed any chances of having a baby, something Lance dreams of.The people in The Skeleton Twins aren't unstable in a melodramatic fashion. They are disappointed with their lives, ready to do something drastic just to inject meaning into their veins. Milo thought he'd be the bullied outsider that could, one day, come to a class reunion and laugh at his balding, middling tormentors. Maggie thought that she could live in domestic bliss and stay within that bliss. But it doesn't happen.The film explores several relationships, going back and forth between Milo and Maggie, Milo and his ex-lover, Rich (Ty Burrell), who destroyed his teenage years, and the siblings and their flighty mother (Joanna Gleason). The conversations glide over and under sheer wit and blood- letting, the characters are written with hundreds of layers. They hit close to home, making us question our own self-confidence and achievements.But it's one of those films in which the biggest successes come from the actors. If they didn't have chemistry, The Skeleton Twins would never work. Yet the emotional bonds (good or bad) between the actors in the film are so instantaneously genuine that there is a fluidity that makes the anguish all the more real. The laughs are quick, but they are consistently overtaken by the somber sequences that follow them. Because, in real life, a joke can be thrown off a roof if you open up an old wound.Read more reviews at petersonreviews.com