My Sweet Suicide (1998) from Johnny Web (Uncle Scoopy; Greg Wroblewski)
A fortuitous meeting of a man who wants to commit suicide, and a woman who is looking for a dying person who can deliver a message to her departed boyfriend. He doesn't have the courage, so she agrees to help him.

The highlight of the film is not the relationship that develops between them, but the two dumb mechanics that she hires to kill him - with his permission, of course.
 They never do manage to kill him, but they do manage to hurt him a lot. My favorite set piece in the film was The Death Chair. One of the two mechanics manages to swindle a handicapped man out of his wheelchair, and paints it with a skull and crossbones. Then they strap the would-be suicide to the chair and push him off a cliff.

NUDITY REPORT
none
 That fails, but the mechanics are pleased to have failed, because murder is such a gas that they can't wait to do it again. In the rest of the film, they try means fair and foul to kill him, until they finally accept the fact that he's changed his mind.

This is a zero-budget independent film with a very witty script, in which the girl vacillates between wanting him dead and wanting him to live.

DVD info from Amazon.

no widescreen, no meaningful features
I guess the great problem with indies is that they rarely manage to pull the whole thing together. In this case, good script, mediocre everything else. I think this could have been a top-notch comedy if the same script got a bit of polishing and was filmed by professionals.  As it is, it has some great concepts and some great moments, but is really rough around the edges. The direction can be imaginative and arresting, but it isn't consistent. The performers have some good moments, and a lot of unnatural ones. 

It's only 78 minutes long, so it doesn't overstay its welcome, and you may enjoy it if you have a taste for offbeat comedies.

The Critics Vote

  • no major reviews

The People Vote ...

  • With their votes ... IMDB summary: IMDb voters score it 5.7
IMDb guideline: 7.5 usually indicates a level of excellence, about like three and a half stars from the critics. 6.0 usually indicates lukewarm watchability, about like two and a half stars from the critics. The fives are generally not worthwhile unless they are really your kind of material, about like two stars from the critics. Films under five are generally awful even if you like that kind of film, equivalent to about one and a half stars from the critics or less, depending on just how far below five the rating is.

My own guideline: A means the movie is so good it will appeal to you even if you hate the genre. B means the movie is not good enough to win you over if you hate the genre, but is good enough to do so if you have an open mind about this type of film. C means it will only appeal to genre addicts, and has no crossover appeal. D means you'll hate it even if you like the genre. E means that you'll hate it even if you love the genre. F means that the film is not only unappealing across-the-board, but technically inept as well.

Based on this description, this film is a C.

Return to the Movie House home page