Wilbur Wants to Kill Himself (2002)

by Lone Scherfig

An Analysis

Harbour (Adrian Rawling) cares for his younger brother Wilbur (Jamie Sives) who becomes more embarrassed each time a suicide attempt fails. The brothers inherit their father's used book shop in Scotland, and plan to close it, until Alice (Shirley Henderson) arrives to sell some books and, with her daughter Mary (Lisa McKinlay), changes their lives. Lone Scherfig's first film since Italian for Beginners (2000) breaks from her Dogme 95 style and delivers a surprising and satisfying film.

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Please see the film before reading further

Scherfig-as-Auteur

Lone Scherfig

While Scherfig leaves behind Dogme 95's principles, she does retain a few elements from it and from Italian for Beginners. We can feel that she has returned her director of photography Jørgen Johansson from Italian for Beginners, as he creates shots unafraid to show us the backs of principal actors. In one of the film's two most pivotal scenes, when incompetent nurse Moira (Julia Davis) spills the beans on Harbour's medical condition, that moment's music/sound effects were provided in-scene by young Mary making her crystal glass sing a soft, discordant shriek. Last, Scherfig uses death as a distraction from the film's story twist. Like in Beginners, when everyone and her mother seemed to be dying, Scherfig uses Wilbur's suicide attempts to distract us from the eventual story--by film's end, none thought Wilbur would check out early.


Characters

Nurse Moira

Kind nurse Moira, who arrives with a different hair style every day (including crimping!), is a bit unbelievable as a proper nurse. Her professional boundaries with her group counseling clients are easily and often crossed, she extols the virtues of "alternative medicine" (lamenting its title for all the wrong reasons), and she willingly gives up confidential client information. Her unveiling of Harbour's condition is one of the film's two biggest plots turns. The rest of her character make-up allows for this misstep to happen, but I wonder what alternatives Ms. Scherfig contemplated in trying to figure out how to unveil Harbour's condition.

Harbour and Alice

Harbour is a kind man who takes Wilbur's woman-wooing advice to land Alice. Harbour, in his kind goodness, could be prematurely dismissed as uninteresting, or unimportant to the film. Harbour's reaction to learning from innocent Mary that Alice is sleeping with Wilbur is the unique, emotional scene of the film. We have all seen the "when I die, take care of my wife" scene before, but Harbour's subsequent kind, low-key, indirect, sincere scenes with Alice and then with Wilbur, allow him to say goodbye, and that he is okay with them being together, all without ever making either feel defensive or anxious.  This is the brilliant scene that makes Wilbur Wants to Kill Himself.

Alice

Alice, incompetent as a janitor, finds success in greater challenges, such as running a bookstore. But for saving Wilbur, she remains emotionally understated. Harbour's attraction to her, other than her pretty-side-of-plain looks, seems to be rooted in having been able to land her. Wilbur's attraction to her is even less apparent.  

Wilbur

Finally, Wilbur. Wilbur does not understand how to be nice, even though he is mostly well-meaning (his mentoring of grade school children, for instance). He lived in the shadow of Harbour for decades, even though dad loved Wilbur more. Wilbur wants to literally kill himself only during the film's first half, which grows into a figurative wanting-to-kill-himself when he imagines that Alice, upon Harbour's imminent Christmas visit, might sleep again with her husband. As Harbour's last conversation with Wilbur unfolds, and the film concludes, we worry not one wit about Wilbur's mental state.  Harbour's death has allowed Wilbur to flourish, though he never wanted it that way.

trailer,Wilbur Wants to Kill Himself