The Skeleton Twins

Maggie (Kristen Wiig) has her prescription medication overdose rudely interrupted by a phone call informing her that her estranged brother Milo (Bill Hader) is currently in hospital, having barely survived his own suicide attempt. Not the most auspicious of starts for a comedy starring two of America’s most loved comedians, but The Skeleton Twins isn’t exactly aiming for your funny bone.

Opening her home to Milo, introducing him to her husband Lance (Luke Wilson), attempting to assist him get his life back on track, all while beginning an affair with her hunky scuba coach (Boyd Holbrook), Maggie is perhaps even more emotionally damaged than her brother, she just does a much better job of hiding it.

Still working out the psychologically scarring of their father committing suicide, Wiig and Hader completely lose themselves in these roles, perfectly creating that unique brother-sister dynamic, the supernatural ability of bringing out the absolute best and horrifically worst sides in each other. Wiig has attempted this dramedy angle before in Girl Most Likely and Friends With Kids, but succeeds on a whole new level here. On the other hand, Hader is an absolute revelation as the tormented Milo, a gay man tortured by the thought that a world that reassured him as a teenager that things were going to get better, only for him to grow up and find out it was all rose-tinted lies.

Director and co-writer Craig Johnson brings out the best in his cast, including Modern Family’s Ty Burrell as a very complicated love interest for Milo, and even Owen Wilson, who plays a “Golden Labrador” of a man, his sunny disposition completely at odds with the sullen cynicism of his wife and brother-in-law. Johnson also balances the hilarity and pathos exceedingly well, knowing when to push the comedy to help lighten up proceedings, but never pushing it too far that it outweighs the bittersweet core of this intrinsically heartrending story of two broken people who don’t know how to fix themselves.

Nuanced, poignant and at times laugh out loud funny, The Skeleton Twins is worth seeking out.