MHA's Blog: Chiming In

Suicide, and its image in pop culture, has a long and confusing history. Anyone you ask about suicide will tell you that it’s a horrible thing, especially the suicides of young people but ask anyone about Romeo and Juliet, and it’s the most romantic story in the world. The deaths of the two lovers becomes the final point in their love, not a mistake egged on by adults who want to use the teens for their gains.  One of suicide’s connotations is now the tragic end of teenaged love.

Wristcutters: A Love Story does something a little different with suicide, but the point still stands. The movie opens with Zia, the main character, slitting his wrists over his breakup with his girlfriend Desiree. He winds up in a place where everyone has committed suicide, and befriends a Russian man whose whole family committed suicide and a girl who claims that her death wasn’t a suicide but a mistake. The world is just like one he left, only no one can smile, there are no stars and everything is just a little worse. Zia finds out that his girlfriend is also there and the three set out on a road trip to find her. There’s lots of learning about life, bonding and Sundance-y quirkiness. We see how most of the characters wound up in the fantasy land, occasionally in a dark way and sometimes in a light way, but the title is finitely the edgiest part of this.

The Romeo and Juliet theme starts the movie, instead of ending it, which is good. In the play, the suicides are at the end, framed to a certain extent as the ultimate act of love by the two title characters. The way the play is often taught, that the two love each other  so much that they can’t possibly live without one another, looms large over teenage romances to this day. That interpretation ignores the fact that the Friar gives Juliet the idea to fake her death, never tells Romeo it's fake and then can’t get to them before Romeo drinks his poison. All of the adults use these two teenagers (young teenagers-Juliet is generally considered to be 14, Romeo 17) to their own ends-the Friar wants to bring peace between the families and assumes the marriage will force them to stop fighting; the Prince feels the same. These motives are often ignored or minimized when the play is taught to all teenagers in America, so the idea of suicide as the ultimate end of teenage love becomes the norm. It gets further entrenched into West Side Story and Twilight.

Wristcutters takes this idea and says “now what?” Zia is stuck with the realization that his reaction to his breakup was out of proportion, and he has to live with the consequences. It’s an intriguing place to go with what could have been much more boring or tasteless. It’s a different take than the other movies have been, which is positive. When he finally meets Desiree again, it goes differently than he expected. In fact, I’d say that suicide could have been replaced with any major life decision and had a similar movie. I don’t know if that’s a good thing or not, but the fact that a movie might directly question the usual assertion is a good place to start.

I’m disappointed that Romeo and Juliet is still being misinterpreted by many people who read it or watch it, but I’m glad movies like Wristcutters is taking the romance out of the horrible act of suicide. I wish this movie were shown in schools when Romeo and Juliet is discussed, to provide a counterbalance to that message, if nothing else.

Next week, It’s Kind of a Funny Story will takes us to a current mental hospital, quirky Sundance style. Have you seen Wristcutters? What did you think?