Wilbur Wants To Kill Himself DVD Review:

I must admit, I hadn't heard too much about Wilbur Wants To Kill Himself before receiving the DVD. The title pretty much sums up the story. Wilbur
(JAMIE SIVES), really does want to kill himself. Whether that be sticking his head in a gas oven, as he does in the opening scene, hanging himself
with a mains lead, drowning himself or indeed slitting his wrists. Throughout his life, Wilbur has failed to find a will to live, a reason to stay alive, and he does everything he can to end it all. All to no avail. For some reason he finds himself messing it up in some way, and he wakes up after every attempt to find himself still kicking.

Wilbur and his older brother Harbour inherit an old book store from their father, and everything changes. That will to live walks through the doors in
the form of Alice and her daughter, Mary. But there's an immediate problem for Wilbur, as Alice almost immediately falls for Harbour, and ends up
marrying him.

It all sounds so depressing doesn't it? But that's not what the film is at all. In fact, although the film features Wilbur's truly disturbing (and sometime hilarious) suicide scenes, the film focuses more on life itself. Once again it's a film all about love and how it can change anyone, even if that person is a suicidal mental patient going through a mid-life crisis. It's about love between two brothers, and how far they'd go for one another. But above all, to me anyway, it seemed about the love of life itself, and finding the will to live it.

The cast is relatively unknown. Jamie Sives is excellent as the film's central character, Wilbur, and certainly a face to look out for in the future. Charming and sentimental, and one who definitely will win the ladies in the audience over. His stand out performance makes the film. Adrian Rawlings, dodgy accent aside, turns in a decent performance as Harbour and Shirley Henderson, who you'll recognise as Spud's girlfriend in Trainspotting is excellent as the squeaky voiced love interest, Alice.

What also surprised me, as once gain, I'd heard nothing of this film before seeing it, is that almost the entire crew is Danish, as is the co-writer and
director Lone Scherfig. Surprising because it had such a Scottish appeal to it, right the way down to some of the laughs like when Wilbur jokes about
Wales, or the dark humour during some of the films suicide scenes.

Wilbur is an enjoyable movie. One probably to rent rather than own as it probably wouldn't stand up to repeat viewing. A funny, moving, sentimental
film complimented by the superb acting and writing. Excellent.

THE EXTRAS:
Disappointing. It's funny that you get a great movie, but the DVD is always let down by the lack of decent extras. The interviews are bitty and separated by title cards with information of how long each segment lasts. They are informative, wit director Scherfig revealing that she was originally to shoot the film under the demands of the Danis Dogma 95 manifesto (handheld cameras, no pre-recorded soundtrack, natural lighting etc). The outtakes are generally unfunny, i.e. mostly the actors bursting into laughter for no apparent reason. There's also the deleted scenes, which I always find a waste of time when they are included out of the context of the movie. If they are to be included separately, then a commentary, to me is necessary. None here, or indeed a feature commentary either. The theatrical trailers and scene selection come as standard.

As I said before, a movie to rent. It's the sort of film you'll watch once. The extras don't really justify the £20 outlay. A good movie all the same, and definitely worth a look.

Paul Heath

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