The Skeleton Twins Review

Director: Craig Johnson

Cast: Kristen Wiig, Bill Hader, Luke Wilson, Ty Burrell, Boyd Holbrook

Running Time: 93 minutes

Rating: 15

After a decade of estrangement, twins Maggie and Milo find themselves reunited following their coincidental brush with death. While visiting Milo in hospital, Maggie invites her twin brother to come back home to live with herself and her husband and try to rehabilitate, but the pair find themselves both going through that process together, and they are both forced to look at how their lives went so very wrong. They soon become to realise that they could solve their biggest problem by reconciling with each other.

Yes we know what you are thinking, is it that time of year where our favourite comedic actors get into an Independent film in hope for award show glory? Yes it is. But in the case of The Skeleton Twins it actually has enough oomph to get it some possible Oscar dark horse buzz.

And with its quite obviously famous leads, it is not surprisingly that the thing that keeps this film going is Wiig and Hader. The pair, who had previously worked together on Saturday Night Live, had a great advantage of knowing each other, and their brother/sister relationship feels incredibly natural. But we have to give shout out to Hader in this film, who comes out as the MVP of the movie. You might be expecting him to break out into a Stefan-inspired comedic performance, but his performance is nothing short of heartbreaking. And out of all the characters in the film, you really can relate to him the most. 

That is not to say the film is perfect though. Most of its problems seem to come down to its script, which often felt forced at times, which left the natural progression of Milo and Maggie's reconciliation a bit out of the loop. This came in the form of the curveballs that would randomly placed through out, from Maggie's constant infidelity to the reveal of Milo's teenage relationship with his old English teacher (who had another great performance from Modern Family's Ty Burrell). But this is an obvious genre risk, especially when you are watching a realism drama, you start to feel comfortable in this world that you are expecting their problems to surface over months, not within an hour and a half. 

The Skeleton Twins has been the most hyped film of the year, and we can see why. With its knockout performances and its realist drama elements, it is definitely going to throw fans of Wiig and Hader off. We can hope that The Skeleton Twins means more dramatic roles for Hader and Wiig, because they have DEFINITELY proved they deserve them. 

The Skeleton Twins is released November 7th 2014