Wilbur Wants to Kill Himself: Critic Reviews

The mixture of drizzly Scottish bleakness and Scherfig's meandering Danish moodiness is too chicly depressive -- and, for the most part, too dull -- to bear.

The new film by the Danish director Lone Scherfig, which begins with a suicide attempt and ends in a graveyard, makes you glad to be alive.

Provides some wry chuckles, but much of it is as dark as a Glasgow winter.

What makes Wilbur worth watching are its smaller bits.

Wilbur Wants to Kill Himself wants to be as shocking as its title, but it doesn't have the nerve.

Less morbid than an eccentric mixture of the mawkish and primal.

Thanks in part to the performances and director Lone Scherfig's restrained direction, it remains engaging to the last scene.

The acting is solid, but the tone is grating.

Here is a movie that appeals to the heart while not insulting the mind or forgetting how delightful its characters are.

A very good, offbeat movie with a very bad, offbeat title.

A poignant, death-tinged comedy.

A charming, life-affirming gem.

Worth seeing.

Ms. Scherfig and Mr. Jenson have fashioned one of the most exquisitely life-affirming and love-affirming cinematic experiences of the year.

Don't be put off by the title. Wilbur Wants to Kill Himself -- director Lone Scherfig's follow-up to Italian for Beginners -- deals with suicide and terminal illness, but she manages to keep the proceedings light and airy.

Pretty enjoyable.

[Scherfig's] agile touch is in evidence as she continues to mine everyday longings and love's improbabilities.

Call this a brooding comedy or a darkly whimsical drama, Wilbur's willingness to mix gallows humor and real sadness make it something on which labels do not easily fit.

...the kind of picture one is more inclined to admire than embrace