by: Uel Ceballos
Funny
yet not without a purpose, “The Skeleton Twins” presented the typical dark
dilemmas of the mid-life in a witty, surprisingly entertaining screenplay. It
told the story of the twins Maggie and Milo as they both dealt with their own mess.
Maggie was a married woman who incontestably loved her husband Lance but despite
that fact, she still got involved into multiple illicit affairs outside her marriage. It wasn’t because Lance had shortcomings as Maggie’s husband but due
to the reason that Maggie was a sick person. She was a troubled soul often
haunted by her past. It was shown figuratively by constant flashbacks as she
kept remembering their childhood days with their father. She and Milo were the
gruesome twosome as their father used to call them. It would show the young
Maggie together with the young Milo in pretty wig and girl’s dress. Maggie
would always remember how their father advised them to stick and stand by each
other’s side no matter what happened. However as they reached adulthood, the
two would separate their lives and lived on their own for ten long straight
years.
The
twins reunited after Milo failed on an attempted suicide and Maggie asked him
to go back with her in New York. On Milo’s part, coming back to his home town
was another phase on his life as he would see again his high school English
professor with whom he had an affair way back. Milo was fifteen year old then
and while he saw it as a sincere romantic relationship, his twin Maggie saw it
as child molestation and exposed the thing in the open. Thus, Milo would keep this
renewed affair from Maggie’s knowledge.
The
story went through the seemingly insoluble quandaries of the twins as they both
tried protecting and helping each other in the best way they could think of.
However, like in the real life, the people we loved often missed out the main
point why we’d done such a thing. While our purest intention was to look after
and care for them, all they thought was that we ruined everything by meddling
into their personal affairs. Like any most siblings do, Maggie and Milo went
through the worst fight and hurtful exchange of words that almost brought their
relationship into the brink.
What
made “The Skeleton Twins” remarkable was its common twist but unusual pair of
characters. The dialogues were not trying-hard to appear profound or clever. It
sounded free and natural without overdoing the witty and dramatic parts. Its less
pretension however, caused the tendency to minimize the overall emotional
impact of the movie. But it was saved by Kristen Wiig and Bill Hader’s performances
that were both plausible and amazing. They made a good tandem and Bill Hader,
being a straight guy, had indeed given us a knockout performance in his
portrayal of the troubled gay Milo. Personally, I loved the character of Milo
and Hader’s portrayal made it all the more likeable.
“The
Skeleton Twins” attracted viewers with its feature of the life’s downside
moments. But its strong statement of the family concept is what really made it all the
more magnetic and emotion-appealing. The funny side of it is what the other see
as the film’s strongest point but for me it is the relationship and struggles
of the two characters that made it a good story and a must-watch film. In one
way or another, this film would inspire us to deal more maturely and bravely with
our own mess. Who never got fucked up at one point in their lives anyway? Everyone
did. Everyone reached that low times being damaged, broken, and injured and all
it took for us to recover was to know that we have our own “skeleton twin” who
will stand by our side no matter what happen, through the good and bad times. And we'll manage to get by then, picking up our fallen pieces.
P.S. I enjoyed the way the writer (who is obviously a literary freak) found a way to insert in the film those things about Marley and Me, Moby Dick, and Danielle Steel. :)
