Movie Review: The Skeleton Twins [2014]

The Skeleton Twins is director Craig Johnson's second movie, starring Bill Hader and Kristen Wiig as twins who've been apart for a while and are reunited after Milo's (Hader) suicide attempt. Every siblings' story has a background, deeply buried in their memories but somehow sticking up to the surface of each's mind time after time. Maggie and Milo have their own.

Milo is out gay man with romance history with his professor, whose career and life was almost ruined when Maggie learned about their relationship. Even though all went well, Milo lost love of his life, which contributed him moving to L.A. to pursue an acting career. Just because he dreamed too big, he kept feeling like a real loser which boiled down to unsuccessful act of suicide. Now Maggie - who really enjoys playing a big sister - is the one to take care of him. When they are forced to go back to each other, they re-examine their relationship and personal lives.

Maggie is happily married to "nature frat boy" - a hardworking, sweet, hottish and brilliant lover named Lance (Luke Wilson). But her happiness is tested whenever she feels presence of some good men, like her scuba instructor Billy (Boyd Holbrook) - an extremely sexy, tattooed, blond guy. Even though she truly loves her husband, she can not help herself having sex with Billy. Maggie knows she is fucked up and then here comes a twin brother, who can make any miserable life feel like perfection. Coming back to hometown is not easy for Milo, because he never got over with breakup. A good closure is needed in the end every relationship, so he drops by a library his ex - Rich (Ty Burell) - works. Even though both know how bad idea a "reunion" can be, they still get together "for the sake of old times".

On the paper, all that I told looks very ordinary, something you can expect from any dramedy out there. But I'll still defend this one, if it needs one. Mark Heyman (known for Black Swan) and Craig Johnson's screenplay is just amazing in all aspects a good screenplay should be: it has a very natural, witty, interesting dialogues, with enough humor and drama in it. It never goes too deep in philosophy, but it genuinely brings some delightful fun. It is true that none of the characters are either original or complex, but they perfectly fit the average description of any person around us, but I did not care. The story was good enough to keep me watching and that's what matters. What I liked here is some scenes with a huge heart and emotions in it, for instance, the twin dance scene on Starship hit "Nothing's Gonna Stop Us Now". With the majestic acting of both leads, I absolutely enjoyed it.

Most importantly, I loved The Skeleton Twins because of Hader and Wiig. Never been their huge fan, but what Bill did here was beyond exciting. His portrayal of young, unsuccessful gay man was very emotional, true and memorably. I will remember his performance for a quite long time. I am not sure what is this about, but I found him extremely entertaining and funny, also real. And Kristen sold some great lines and thoughts of her character perfectly. This duo had unimaginably great chemistry on the screen.

I'd gladly praise Johnson's work here, because be brought a dysfunctional family drama and comedy together and crafted it into something very memorable. Maybe comedy directors don't have to deal with a lot technical work, or think about camera angles, but filming a movie in such a lovely way, whatever it needs, amounts to a good job.

To conclude, The Skeleton Twins is one of the best movies I've seen so far and my favorite. What we've seen so far, it does not get much awards attention, even though I believe Bill Hader deserves one.