The Skeleton Twins (2014), R, ★★★1/2

Bill Hader depressed while Kristen Wiig drives.

Depression can really be relevant to any particular element of your life that causes you to drive into the deepest pit of your inner sanctum. It can force you to do anything that can cause you to nearly die or completely die and affect everybody around you. It is always suitable and helpful to have a relative be near you when you are struggling with a depression, like a sibling. And, sometimes, the sibling or relative that helps you may be in trouble and that causes the depressed one to overcome one's habits and redeem himself or herself to perform a good deed. Plus, the good deed may benefit your outcome of your life and change it. This film really captures the sibling bonding between brother and sister in a quiet but almost powerful film.

Maggie and Milo (Kristen Wiig and Bill Hader) are brothers and sisters who are having trouble with their lives. Milo is blasting music in his apartment and leaves a note when he attempts suicide in his bathroom. Simultaneously, Maggie is holding a handle of pills in her bathroom until suddenly she gets a call from the hospital informing her that Milo has attempted suicide. Maggie goes to the hospital to see Milo, knowing that they have not seen each other in ten years.

Maggie insists that Milo needs to go to New York with her to recuperate from the incident. He resists, but reluctantly heads to the Big Apple with her. While there, Milo meets Lance (Luke Wilson), Maggie's husband who is an odd but normally nice guy. Lance brags that she always wants to try new things as Maggie is taking scuba lessons to prepare for her late honeymoon in Hawaii.

While Maggie goes to her scuba lesson, she and her instructor, Billy (Boyd Holbrook) have developed a sexual tension between them as they are both having an affair. It is a bit contradicting because she is having a little fling but also that Lance mentions that he and Maggie are trying to have a baby as Milo takes it as a surprise as she does not want to have children. Maybe, times have changed or not changed. How the whole family drama will circle around itself will be redeeming or fatal.

Maggie and Milo in a waiting area. 

This is a very weird, but enriching film about a brother and sister struggling with their lives by simultaneously making wrong or life-changing decisions regarding their social life and lives themselves. But, they both want to make it up to themselves to try to bond with each other, bond with other friends, and feel better about themselves. The question is whether you are happy, are you so happy that one insignificant event can delve you into depression that you want to get rid of yourself from the world? We cannot answer for them, as one is in charge of themselves. But, it is helpful to talk with someone that you are close to.

Bill Hader and Kristen Wiig, who are both former SNL comedians, give sensational performances as twins who cheated death on the same day who want to mend their relationship. No wonder they have great chemistry to you want to follow them every step of the day. These are no doubt two of the strongest performances from SNL amongst lame roles from people who left SNL to move on. Luke Wilson also gives a nice performance and so does Ty Burrell from Modern Family.

The only thing that is preventing me from giving it a perfect score is that the arc is predictable: Two people who almost had a way of death try to redeem themselves and make themselves feel great again. And, the outcome is a bit predictable, but, not in a conventional way. There is heartbreak and charm in this film that is a pleasure to watch to see what both characters are going to do. It is almost a chess game. This film is full of laughs and drama that this movie conveys near-tragedy into near-guilt that is taken away by love. This movie is a small, well-directed and pleasing gem by Craig Johnson. I congratulate Johnson, Wiig, Hader, Wilson and Burrell for this effort.

***1/2