The Skeleton Twins (3/5 Stars)

‘The Skeleton Twins,’ is a perfect example of great performances elevating the original source material. By itself, the screenplay could be considered as a merely a drama about estranged twins with an inclination towards suicide, but the casting of two of the most talented comedians in movies, Bill Hader and Kristin Wiig, in the starring roles turns the drama into a bittersweet mix of humor and pathos. Laughs are mined out of every crevice in the scenery imaginable and a few big ones seem to be concocted by pure improvisation on the movie set. Who gets credit for what is always up for grabs as movies do not contain footnotes as to who came up with what when, but I think it is fair to assume that the movie two best scenes, the one’s taking place in the dentist office and then the lip sync dance are cast innovations. Even if they were transcribed word for word in the script, the performances are what make it.

What makes them pop and sizzle so is not merely the stand alone power of the likes of Kristin Wiig (who I have raved about before) or Bill Hader (who I will rave about in a moment) but the combination of them together in the same scene. Hader and Wiig both got their start together on Saturday Night Live during what was arguably the best years of that show. The platonic chemistry and comic timing that was perfected there has been transplanted flawlessly here. Do they come off as twins? Well, they look nothing alike, but they sure act like they are.

The drama in the story comes from several places. Their dad committed suicide when they were fourteen. Their mother is selfish in a severely deluded sort of way. Bill moved to Los Angeles to be an actor but failed continually for a decade before trying to commit suicide. He moves back to New York to live with his sister for the time being (they have not spoken in ten years but I’m not going to say why). She is engaged but is too screwed up to take advantage of her good luck in a partner (Luke Wilson, being goofy, endearing, and an all around naive good guy). You may say that she has an overdeveloped sense of guilt and is too busy punishing herself to be a truly good person (again I’m not telling you why.) The last subplot has to do with Bill being a homosexual. When he gets back to his New York small town he spies a former lover (who is significantly older) working in a bookstore and decides to say hi. It is not cool that he does this. (I’m not saying anything less vague about that either).

Generally I do not like watching movies about the trials and tribulations of actors. There a few too many of these movies out there and they all seem to glaze over the fact that the job is a predictably impossible thing to achieve. Predictably impossible things aren’t tragic things. You don’t get sad when somebody really wants to win the lottery and doesn’t succeed. But here I forgave Bill Hader for his character. It is a superb acting job. The character is gay but isn’t in your face flamboyant about it. It is a subtle performance that sneaks under your attention. By the end, I just stopped thinking of Bill Hader as anything but automatically gay. And I wasn’t thinking of his character Stefon on SNL either. As far as I know Bill Hader has not done a dramatic role in a movie before. This is his first and it is another great example of comedians being more than able to perform drama capably. They do not get awards for being funny but all the evidence suggests that a good comedic performance is harder than a dramatic performance given how well comedians do drama and how not so well drama people do comedy.

I had one little note for the subplot (that I won’t tell you about) between Bill Hader and Ty Burrell. I felt that the story would have made more sense if it had taken place at least ten years ago or at least in a place that was more conservative than New York. What happened in the character’s past will always be controversial, but how much of a scandal would any present relationship be in 2014. I expect the screenplay for this movie was written at least several years ago. Times have changed very fast indeed.