The Skeleton Twins Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		4.0
Video		4.0
Audio		4.0
Extras		3.5
Overall		4.0

The Skeleton Twins Blu-ray Movie Review

'Skeleton' keys: Wiig and Hader.

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman December 14, 2014

There’s an often weird but undeniable dialectic between siblings that seems to inform their relationships long after they’ve moved out of their parents’ house and purportedly on to their own adult lives. A certain shorthand often crops up at family reunions where a simple look or even a one word mention of something can spark instant recognition or (in some cases) breakdowns and arguments. These tendencies are perhaps only exaggerated in kids who come from dysfunctional families whose history is rife with elements like alcoholism or clinical mental issues like depression. That might seem to be an odd setup for a film whose Blu-ray cover pull quotes emphasize how “hilarious” and “funny” it is, but putting aside marketing gambits for a moment, The Skeleton Twins turns out to be a rather audacious film that features brilliant and largely dramatic performances from two unlikely sources: Kristen Wiig and Bill Hader. With Saturday Night Live’s semi-august history of offering comedians a chance to stretch their actorly wings in more urbane and sophisticated fare, it probably shouldn’t come as a huge surprise that Wiig and Hader are up to the task of depicting two estranged twins who reunite in the wake of one failed suicide attempt and one unconsummated suicide attempt. Hardly the building blocks for a “laff riot” as Variety might call it, many readers might be thinking by this point, and indeed The Skeleton Twins, while whimsically humorous in an off kilter way some of the time, is a quieter and more introspective character study than some might expect given the marquee value and built in demographic pull of its stars. Wiig and Hader portray Maggie and Milo, two wounded souls who, as the film opens, have decided independently to end it all, bringing a close to what seems to have been a lifetime of emotional turmoil. Milo has already slit his wrists and deposited himself in the bathtub for his final moments, while Maggie is ruminating over a handful of pills when her morbid meditation is interrupted by a phone call from a hospital informing of her brother’s suicide attempt, which was upset when neighbors complained about the obnoxiously loud music Milo had been playing to escort him to the afterlife. That sets up a halting, fumbling reunion between the two, who had neither seen nor spoken to each other for ten years or so.

Maggie puts aside her own issues to leave her home in Nyack, arriving at Milo’s hospital bedside in Los Angeles to a less than glorious welcome from her brother. It’s obvious there’s something going on beneath the surface here, but co-writer and director Craig Johnson unfolds the story, and especially the subtext, fairly slowly and carefully here, in a way that is less expository than implied. It’s actually one of the most enjoyably organic things about The Skeleton Twins, for the film doesn’t browbeat its audience with plot points, letting the viewer draw inferences from throwaway comments to piece together a long simmering family dynamic.

It turns out that Milo is gay and has been struggling to establish himself as an actor in La-La Land, to no avail. Maggie on the other hand is supposedly happily married to a kind of affably nebbishy guy named Lance (Luke Wilson). WIth perhaps a little cajoling from the hospital staff (something that, like so much in this film, is only hinted at, not depicted outright), Maggie invites Milo to come back with her to Nyack, where evidently the two of them grew up, to get his emotional bearings again. Against his better judgment, he agrees, and most of the rest of the film plays out in Maggie’s home.

In a number of finely tuned vignettes, Johnson rather smartly peels back various layers of the twins’ family history (which includes a suicide) as well as their current predicaments. Milo’s sexual preference turns out to have less to do with his current depression than it does with his history with Maggie. This is one of The Skeleton Key’s most artfully handled elements, as Milo reconnects with an old teacher of his (played rather wonderfully by Modern Family’s Ty Burrell) and (not to pun too horribly) various skeletons start falling out of various closets.

Maggie, meanwhile, turns out to be somewhat less happily married than she lets on, although that has very little to do with nice guy Lance. Maggie is obviously searching desperately for something, though it’s just as obvious she probably doesn’t know what that is. The result has been a series of extramarital affairs, including a current one with her scuba instructor Billy (Boyd Holbrook). She’s also withholding vital information from Lance about their attempts to conceive a child, all of which plays into the film’s final act.

The Skeleton Twins has an intimate naturalistic quality to it that is surprisingly well rendered by an unlikely cast, including Joanna Gleason in a cameo as the twins’ New Age obsessed mother who seems rather suspiciously akin to the wannabe hipster portrayed by Shelley Long in Burrell’s own Modern Family. The film does have moments of humor, but this is not a raucous in your face comedy by any stretch of the imagination. The film does have a few stumbles along the way, including an ending which seems to be triumphant on its surface but which, upon any serious reflection, perhaps more trenchantly suggests that these two siblings are so wounded that they can only find solace in each other’s company, no matter how contentious that company may sometimes be.

The Skeleton Twins Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

The Skeleton Twins is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Lionsgate Films with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 2.40:1. This digitally shot feature only truly pops in a couple of later outdoor scenes, but the drabness of the overall appearance and much of the palette in particular is no doubt an intentional choice, offering a visual echo of how Maggie and Milo see their lives. Things look fairly soft a lot of the time, with Johnson and DP Reed Morano favoring natural lighting situations that sometimes do not offer superb support for fine detail. There are several interior scenes, including much of the opening sequence, where contrast and brightness seem artificially boosted, further debilitating levels of detail. That said, well lit scenes that offer close-ups can feature superb levels of detail and fine detail, as can easily be seen in several screenshots accompanying this review. There isn't any overt color grading on display, and so the palette, while not exactly eye popping most of the time, looks natural if somewhat lackluster. There are no issues with image instability and no signs of problematic sharpening or other digital anomalies.

The Skeleton Twins Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Aside from a few well chosen source cues (including a couple of "sing along" moments for the stars), The Skeleton Twins' lossless DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 mix is a fairly reserved affair, keeping dialogue largely front and center, but providing subtle immersion with both score and environmental sound effects. Fidelity is fine throughout the presentation, with no problems of any kind to report. Dynamic range is somewhat constrained.

The Skeleton Twins Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Feature Commentary with Director/Co-Writer Craig Johnson, Kristen Wiig and Bill Hader


• Feature Commentary with Director/Co-Writer Craig Johnson, Co-Writer Mark Heyman and Producer/Editor Jennifer Lee


• To Whom It May Concern: Making The Skeleton Twins (1080p; 15:14) is a better than average EPK with good interviews and some fun behind the scenes footage.


• Sweet Moves (1080p; 1:35) is a kind of odd assemblage of moments from the film where people are moving.


• Gag Reel (1080p; 3:36)


• Outtakes include:

  Luke Wilson "fat kid" improv (1080p; 00:26)

  "Sea Turtles" Bill Hader break (1080p; 00:55)

  Maggie and Billy sex scene gag take (1080p; 00:28)

  Kristen Wiig and Bill Hader improv takes for dentist scene (1080p; 3:14)

• Deleted Scenes with Optional Commentary by Director/Co-Writer Craig Johnson (1080p; 15:54)

The Skeleton Twins Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

The holidays often are a time of family, for better or worse, and those of you who are cringing at being reunited with your "lifetime nemeses" (so to speak) may want to have a few moments of feeling superior by comparing yourselves to the completely dysfunctional Maggie and Milo. Wiig and Hader are absolutely exceptional in this film, as are Wilson, Burrell and the rest of the supporting cast. A few bumbling missteps along the way, as well as a somewhat deceptive ending, can't ultimately detract from this film's surprising emotional impact. Technical merits are generally strong, the supplementary package is excellent, and The Skeleton Twins comes Recommended.