I initially thought that this is another indie flic which would be good, but wouldn’t go as deep its characters pasts. But boy was I wrong.
This movie definitely digs deep into the past of two siblings who share a deeply troubled past- and how this past impedes their relationship, as well as helping them reach their full potential as people.
We as the audience soon learn that this past includes a parent who committed suicide; a-on-the- surface- happy-mother who is emotionally absent and icy; and that a high school teacher preyed on one of the siblings while they were in high school, all the while confusing the youth into thinking that he truly did love the boy.
It should be noted that Bill Hader plays one of the role of the twin brother Milo, and Kristen Wiig plays the role of twin sister Maggie. This is a bit ironic because Kristen Wiig and Bill Hader almost had a sibling-like relationship while they both acted on SNL.
The film opens with one twin trying to commit suicide.
They say that twins share an innate, unexplainable connection. When one feels one thing, the other feels the same- even while miles apart. They can often have the same thoughts about a topic.
Well, this movie clearly illustrates that because just at the same time Bill Hader’s Milo has attempted to commit suicide, his twin sister Maggie is about to attempt to commit suicide too!
Being called by the hospital to get her ailing brother, Maggie is forced to confront er, meet up with her brother- who she hasn’t seen in ten years.
But their relationship clearly has holes in it- as can detected by their acerbic dialogue when Maggie asks Milo if he knows what happens at the end of the book he is reading, “Marley and me.” Milo seems to get annoyed that Maggie accidentally reveals that Marley dies at the end. In some ways, it seems that Maggie slightly purposely tells the ending of the story. And at other times, it seems like Milo is blowing the situation up. Only, to joke afterwards saying that he knew what the ending would be like. The weirdness of their relationship can be felt with this whole incident.
Later, Milo goes to live with Maggie, where he is introduced to her adorable, happy, and sweet (perhaps for some-although not me- saccharinely sweet) husband Lance, portrayed by Luke Wilson.
Eventually, Lance gives Milo a job by helping him clear the woody brush in a local park.
But a lot of things are revealed during this initial awkward adjustment period of Milo and Maggie staying together. Maggie and Lance reveal that they are trying to conceive; Maggie and Milo’s mother comes to visit when it’s revealed that Maggie’s mother never come to her wedding, and how she has been an emotionally absent mother; and that Milo and Maggie’s father had committed suicide.
More interesting events occur; Unbeknownst to Maggie, Milo meets up with his former high school teacher- turned lover and bookstore owner Rich (The film also uses the talents of Modern Family’s Ty Burrell, who is takes a dramatic departure from playing the lovable yet hopeless Phil.. to portray Rich). Maggie has an affair with her scuba diving instructor.
In the meanwhile Milo and Maggie experience some differences. One night Milo comes back from being drunk only to wake up Maggie and Lance in the middle of the night. Another time, when Milo drops off Maggie to work, she asks him, do you think I would be a great mom? And his response is that he thinks that she would be uptight and overprotective- only to upset Maggie. Soon they have they have a great bonding moment when Milo and Maggie share a lot of secrets with each other at work. It is here that Maggie reveals that she has affairs, takes birth control to avoid getting pregnant- unknown to Lance. Milo reveals some more humorous things—such as the fact that he has engaged in… um… perfoming oral sex on a female. It is good to remember that Milo is gay.
Maggie and Milo further bond by dancing a drinking during a Halloween night out. But Maggie sees Rich’s (former high school teacher who romances Milo) phone number on his phone she is infuriated that Milo connects with such an unscrupulous character.
The rest of the movie involves more truths, and confrontations to come out, only to have the characters to pick up the pieces. The ending is a good one
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Interesting Things to Note…
Good Balance of Comedy and Drama
This movie is dramedy at its best. It has many dramatic sections with comedy sprinkled on it. For instance, when Milo upsets Maggie by stating reasons as to why she wouldn’t make a good mother- he later apologizes and says that what he thinks what will really get in her way of motherhood is her, “morbid obesity.”
Best One Liner- When Bill Hader’s Milo shares some secrets with his sister and says that he has tried, “eating p_$$#” and he found it warm, wet, pungent….
What the title Skeleton Twins really meant
The word skeleton in the title is something that was beguiling to me first- especially because I didn’t see too many skeleton metaphors in the movie. But upon closer inspection I realized what the word skeleton really meant.
First these two are twins, but they are really are the bare bones of twin relationships because they don’t have much of a loving relationship which many twins share. But nevertheless they still qualify as twins.
Visually speaking- This movie gets some great shots:
There is a shot of the both of Bill Hader’s Milo attempting to commit suicide – by having cut his wrists and having submerged his body in a bathtub.
Even though it was a really sad, empty, scene- it was visually beautiful seeing the striking red, blood diffusing into the water.
There is also the great scene where Milo and Maggie are dancing away during Halloween night- and the shot is so surreal. It’s like you can feel the ambience of the dancing scene and touch it while you are in the movie theater.
My Favorite Character award goes to…. Lance portrayed by Luke Wilson! I am sure some people might find this absolutely staggering because his character seems too happy, perhaps even in a superficial/annoying way. But I really think that he is just a nice, wholesome guy. Although I don’t agree with Bill Hader’s character’s sarcastic tone, I totally agree with the content of what he says when he says that Lance is a happy good guy, and that he is, “ basically like a Labrador retriever.” I totally agree with this. He Is so loving, affectionate, and a happy guy. He even helps out those around him in awkward and hard situations. For instance, when Milo and Maggie’s g-d-awful-fake mother comes to visit
And I should add that when Maggie reveals to Lance that she actually has cheated on him with more than a few men, and has thwarted their efforts in conceiving by taking birth control pills- it is utterly, utterly heartbreaking to see Lance taking all this information in. Though he is wounded, in his true pure-kind- hearted manner (or I would say Labrador retriever manner- because dogs have the most loving hearts on earth), he never lashes out at Maggie.
They must be able to save each other, before they can bring other relationships (including the life of goldfish) into their lives.
Bill Hader is not Gay- If you have seen Hader on SNL, and then you might have seen his memorable Stefan sketches. But, as brilliant as those sketches were- I didn’t think for a moment that he was gay. But now that he portrayed a gay character really well in this movie, a part of me wondered if he truly was acting well or if he was just portraying part of his identity. As I came to know via google search, he is actually married to a beautiful director Maggie Carey and has two lovely little girls- which are adorable.
This movie brings up some important questions
Can we ever truly move on in life, unless we fix our pasts/our roots?
This movie is a character study in what happens when we are bonded to another person-especially in the face of tragedy & complication. We will always have a connection w/them even if that mean that we will share some resentment or anger at them.
It is also a movie which forces us to look at our relationships with our families and our complicated pasts. Perhaps some of us don’t have suicidal parents; high school teachers who have affairs with us; but we all have some sort of issues with those who shaped our environments and sometimes for us to truly move on we have to confront our pasts.
This was definitely the case with Milo an Maggie because neither of them could fully be with other people romantically ( in Maggie’s case Lance); be in healthy relationships ( Milo) bring children into this world; or even take care of some goldfish until they solved their issues in their own lives and with each other. The goldfish scenes were not only visually appealing but reminders of how new beginnings can only start, when we have closures with our pasts.
5 out of 5 stars
