THE SKELETON TWINS
US, 2014, 93 minutes, Colour.
Kristin Wiig, Bill Hader, Luke Wilson, Boyd Holbrook, Ty Burrell, Joanna Gleeson.
Directed by Craig Johnson.
As the film opens, the audience sees a masked man dangling two skeletal dolls, like puppets, for the entertainment of his daughter and son. We soon learn that this man has killed himself. So, it is not surprising to see his son, Milo (Bill Hader) a would-be actor in Los Angeles, gay and lonely, getting into a bath and slitting his wrists. In counterpoint, we see his sister, Maggie (Kristin Wiig) married and living in New York City, contemplating a handful of pills.
Which means that The Skeleton Twins opens very seriously. However, when the sister receives the phone call about her brother’s attempted suicide and realises that they have not been in contact for 10 years, she goes to visit him and soon there are wry remarks, jokes and touches of comedy. She offers to taking back to New York and live in the guestroom in the house which she shares with her husband, Lance.
It is this contrast between serious themes and humorous treatment and behaviour, that gives this film quite an edge.
It should be said that Luke Wilson, at his nicest, is Lance, Maggie’s husband, a truly good-natured and decent man, welcoming Milo, offering him a job (clearing grounds of sticks and brambles with Milo managing only to pick up one stick at a time) as well as an outing at a ‘Dudes’ Day’ at a climbing centre. He and Maggie are hoping to have a family, but several complications are soon revealed, especially as Maggie moves from hobby to hobby every couple of months, scuba diving when Milo arrives, with the instructor having more than an eye on her and she, despite herself, succumbing to him.
One of the interesting features of the film is the issue of sexual abuse of minors. It comes rather later in the film, although we know that Milo has a particular interest in one of his former English teachers, Richard, who owns a bookshop in New York. We realise early that they had had a relationship but not the details which Maggie reveals and challenges Milo with, he saying that this was the first time that anyone had shown him affection and did not see it as abuse. Maggie is rather severe in her perceptions of this episode in Milo’s life.
There is also a telling scene when Milo invites his absent mother (Joanna Gleeson) to a meal, Maggie completely unforgiving in her mother’s neglect of them as children and scornful of her New Age career in Sedona, Arizona. A new insight into the dire effect of their parenting on the brother and sister.
Kristin Wiig and Bill Hadar have been very effective in comedy films. They have been prominent on television as comics on Saturday Night Live. They still retain many of the characteristic of their comic styles, ironic in situations, clever with one-liners and other verbal humour, Milo bursting into a mimed song and drawing Maggie into singing it with him.
This is the story of a brother and sister who have been locked into a lack of self-confidence, whose horizons, generally, are limited to their own experiences, wracked with regrets. Which means that, in one sense, the film is very narrow, the characters enclosed in this narrow world. On the other hand, the exploration of sad aspects of human nature give it a more universal interest and appeal.
The strong cast brings characters alive, so that audiences do have quite a deal to reflect on.
1. The title? The skeleton dolls and the father and his mask, dangling the dolls? The brother and sister? Sharing together, joined together?
2. City, New York City, homes, shops, scuba pool, streets, ordinary? The musical score? The song sung by Maggie and Milo?
3. The serious and the comic? The cast, the reputation as comedians? Tackling serious roles?
4. Images of childhood, Maggie, Milo and he is dress, the lipstick? The father and his mask? Rescuing the dolls from the swimming pool? The visuals of
this part of their life? The talk about other parts: their father and his death, memories of high school, Milo and his father’s talking about people picking in high school?
5. Milo, sad, the bath, the blood, rushed to hospital? The phone call to Maggie, her contemplating pills? Going to the hospital?
6. Audience response to the initial interactions, the bond, not having seen each other for 10 years, the jokes, wry, Milo reading Marley and Me, Maggie offering to take him home?
7. Maggie and her life, married for two years, Lance and his being a congenial man, the plan for the honeymoon in Hawaii? Love, the issue of pregnancy? The meals, the talk at the table? Milo and his being given the room?
8. Lance, nice, decent, good-natured man? Easy-going? Praising people? The response to Milo, genial? In love with Maggie, hoping to have children? Giving the job to Milo, Milo and his picking up sticks, later the bundle? Milo hinting where the contraceptive pills were? His shock, sadness, closing the door – what future with Maggie?
9. Maggie and Milo and the give and take, their hurting each other, conversations, Maggie joining in Milo’s mimed song? The preparations for Halloween, dressing him up, the going out together, his feminine perspective? The breakup of the evening?
10. The visit of their mother, her living in Arizona, at Sedona, New Age, seminars, the past, the talk at the table, Maggie and her contempt for her mother, thinking her a bad mother, Milo inviting her? Her interaction with Lance and her methods? Being hurt and leaving?
11. The story of Milo and Richard, Milo going to the bookshop, Richard wary? Talking about his relationship and his son? Warning Milo? Milo going to him, the spending the night? Maggie and the revelation of what had happened when Milo was 15, Richard as the teacher, Milo his student, the sexual relationship, Milo feeling that this was one time that he was loved? The possibility of jail? How the case was handled out of court? Milo visiting again, meeting the son? Richard and his saying that he was a pussy, afraid, wanting Milo to go, asking him about his plea, Milo saying it was good though the audience knowing he didn’t like it, Milo getting some strength from this visit?
12. Milo, being gay, reference to the gay uncle, wanting to be an actor in LA, relationships, going to the venue on Dykes’ Night, the mountain climbing
exercise, Dudes’ Day? Lance and his wanting to help Milo?
13. Maggie, the scuba diving, the training, the instructor, his eyes on her, the sexual encounters, repetition, her weeping? Breaking with him? Trying to drown herself, Milo saving her?
14. Some resolution in the relationship, sad people coming to terms with their lives, making decisions to live? What future?
