Wilbur Wants to Kill Himself

Wilbur Wants to Kill Himself is the unsentimental title of Lone Scherfig's first film after the huge success "Italiensk for begyndere", and the film lives up to expectations.

Wilbur is a young, world-weary chap who quite routinely tries to put an end to his own life, but he never succeeds. That is mainly down to his older brother Harbour, who has always shouldered responsibility without complaint. Time and again he comes to Wilbur's rescue, but it can only be a matter of time before it goes wrong.

There is not much to cheer about in the two brothers' lives. They have indeed inherited their father's second-hand bookshop, but it is on the brink of bankruptcy. One of the shop's regular suppliers is Alice, who cleans at the hospital, where she finds used books. Alice, a single mother to Mary, has nothing whatsoever under control, so when Harbour offers her both a home and his heart, she does not say no. Wilbur, whom Harbour has let move in after his umpteenth suicide attempt, becomes part of this little family, and gradually he acquires more of a taste for life - and unfortunately also for Alice.

It is the irony of fate that it is Wilbur's brother who is diagnosed with cancer. Harbour is admitted to hospital, and suddenly, for the first time in his life, Wilbur is responsible for others than himself. It comes to mean an upheaval in his life and in his relationship to life.

Lone Scherfig and her co-writer Anders Thomas Jensen manage to balance on a knife-edge between tragedy and comedy. Wilbur Wants to Kill Himself deals with the will to live, or the lack of it, and despite illness and death the film ends on an optimistic note.

Like a number of other Danish films from the past five years, Wilbur Wants to Kill Himself is also set in the intimate sphere, but even though the tone, the humour and the themes are unmistakably Danish, Lone Scherfig can thank Glasgow and the Scottish actors for the film's very special charm and distinctiveness.