re:mote voices

Title: Wilbur (Wants to Kill Himself )
Cast: Jamie Sives, Adrian Rawlins, Shirley Henderson, Lisa McKinlay, Mads Mikkelsen, Julia Davis, Andrew Townsley
Director: Lone Scherfig

for someone like myself, who stays in glasgow, the proposition of a danish film set in glasgow is a curious thing. lone scherfig writer and director of the film was responsible for the reasonably successful dogma film italian for beginners, while co-writer anders thomas jensen was the writer of the dogma films mifune and the king is alive. Mads Mikkelsen as the doctor in the hospital is obviously not scottish, and has had his own experience in dogma cinema, with open hearts, as well as the pair of films bleeder and pusher. the rest of the cast is pretty much british, and mostly scottish.

the film starts with wilbur's latest attempt to kill himself, which comes soon after the death of his father. though wilbur's problems go a lot further back than that. on this occasion harbour, his long suffering brother, gets wilbur to hospital on time. upon his release harbour tries to convince wilbur to take more of an active role in the book shop that their father has left them. the book shop takes a pretty central role in the film, and its interesting to see a familiar location.

but the film is not just about wilbur and harbour, alice is a regular customer, a bumbling single mother, desperate to raise her daughter right. we are introduced to her and witness her problems, the long hours she has to work, scraping money together to make ends meet. with progression though her story intermingles with that of the brothers, and it isn't long before it is her turn to save wilbur's life and not long after she is marrying harbour. bringing the four together under one roof.

of course that doesn't trigger a happily ever after, with all four characters experiencing their trials and tribulations. wilbur is a dark comedy, as many of the dogma films are, though this is not one of those. the fact that the two writers are both danish makes this film even more impressive, the local input in terms of setting scenes, and dialogue is striking. wilbur could easily have been one of those tediously lauded scottish films like my name is joe or orphans, which dwell on the darkness alone, and seem to be almost cliched in themselves. thankfully it may be dark, but it breaks out of the too obvious scottish background and produces something which is much more worth watching. it does make me somewhat curious as to how this film will be received elsewhere, especially in the likes of denmark to which it owes so much of it's genesis.