Movie Review: Kill Your Darlings (2006)

Okay, something new on ChelleWrites!  As I writer, I love love love movies.  I adore picking out the structure, watching character development, and then there’s the popcorn.  What’s not to love?  So, here we go with our first ever Movie Review.

Kill Your Darlings

Brief Synopsis:  A guy moves from Sweden to LA to become a famous writer and gets depressed when he can’t “make it”.  Then one day, for no apparent reason, this woman named Lola shows up and talks him into going to Vegas with her, basically by saying “I double dog dare you”. Meanwhile, ambitious psychiatrist Dr. Bangley and his agent, Stevens, go to Vegas to promote his book.  When two of his patients try to commit suicide, Stevens arranges for a wanna be tough guy to bring them to Vegas to see the shrink.  On the way to Vegas, the tough guy’s car gets hijacked and hijinks ensue.  While in Vegas the shrink gets caught up in the “celebrity” thing and his daughter has a hissy fit because he’s once again renigging on his promise to spend time with her.  And, oh yeah, Lola is a former patient of Dr. Bangley and she wants to go try to commit suicide off the building he’s staying in.  (I think.  The main plot was as crazy and illogical as she was.)

Review:  Okay, as movies go, it’s not going to win any awards.  For one thing, no one manages to commit suicide, which, in my opinion was a good thing because I liked most of these characters.  But, you know how it is, someone you love has to die for a movie to win any awards.  Also, the “main” story line of a Swedish writer who goes to LA searching for fame and fortune and then meets up with a truly crazy person named Lola, a former patient of Dr. Bangley, is just boring. By the end of the film I was more than ready for her to jump off the building and be done with it.  Or, throw the writer off the building, because that was the only way their story line was going to get interesting.

However, Alexander Skarsgard (Geert) and Julie Benz (Katherine) do a wonderful job portraying very unhappy people at the end of their rope, who really don’t want to die, but have run out of coping mechanisms for life. (And, if I giggled a little because she used to play a vampire (Darla in Angel), and now he does (Eric in Trueblood)…well, there wasn’t anyone in the room but me, so it’s all good.)

At the beginning of the movie, Skarsgard plays Geert, a depressed transvestite determined to set himself on fire, Benz plays Katherine, a woman trying to electrocute herself, both fail miserably.  Geert shaves his chest, puts on his makeup, gets dressed to the nine’s, goes into the garage and dumps what has to be five gallons of gasoline on his head, only to find that he saturated the matches and now they won’t light.  There’s so much hopelessness on his face that he can’t even kill himself right, but at the same time, his ineptness is so endearing, you just want to hug him, really horrible wig and all.  (The boy’s pretty, but even with a wig on, there’s no denying he’s a guy.)

Katherine attaches the television to a long extension cord, lugs it out to the pool, tries to throw it in as she jumps in and the the TV gets unplugged right before they both hit the water.  So, she tries to do the same with the toaster and manages to knock a tall kitchen cabinet over on herself.
Both call their shrink, the wonderful Dr. Bangley, played by the equally wonderful John Larroquette.  Bangley is a guy who really wants to help people, but gets caught up in being a “celebrity”.  Luckily, he has his daughter to bring him back to earth.  Bangley’s agent, Stevens, played by the always hate-able Greg Germann, tells him not to worry about it, he’ll get the patients to Vegas so Bangley can see them, and still do the book signing.  Stevens calls Omar, the most lovable wanna be gangsta I’ve ever seen.  From the moment his cellphone rings and the ringtone is his eight year-old daughter’s laughter, you know this guy is a softie at heart.  He takes the job Stevens offers, and heads out to get Geert and Katherine, gently helping a gasoline sodden Geert up from the floor of his garage, and lifting the kitchen cabinet off Katherine, before hand cuffing them both and stowing them in the back of his SUV.

Anyone who will handcuff and then lock two helpless psychotics in the back of his SUV, all the while apologizing profusely, is a guy I can like.  And, when his day with his daughter runs a little long and they can’t leave for Vegas until the next morning, he brings them pillows and a blanket.  Of course, he keeps them handcuffed and locked in the back of his SUV overnight, but still.  Pillows and blankets.  The most touching moment in the whole movie is when Geert, Katherine, and Omar are stranded in the desert after getting car jacked and Omar is kicking himself over the whole thing and Geert tells him he’s not a loser and he’s “taking very good care of us.”  It’s oh so evident that Geert believes he can’t take care of himself.  I’m pretty sure this is one of Skarsgard’s first American films (His first was Zoolander.  Go play Spot the Skarsgard.  You’ll be surprised.) and the vulnerability in that small snippet shows the length and breadth of what he’s capable of as an actor.

And then there’s Lola, played by Lolita Davidovich, the truly crazy one of the bunch, and Erik, our hapless narrator.  After the third time Erik manages to get his car and his wallet and himself away from Lola, and then goes back for her, I was done with both of them.  After that, I managed to sit through their scenes, but only to get to Geert and Catherine and Omar.

Kill Your Darlings is a good movie, not a great movie, but a pretty okay one.  The main plot stinks, but the subplots are full of great characters and stories (and acting).  At just a smidge over an hour and a half, it’s also not a huge time suck.  And, it has a happy, shmaltzy ending.  My favorite kind. ☺
I give it a C+.

Starring: John Larroquette, Lolita Davidovich, Andreas Wilson, Fares Fares, Julie Benz, Alexander Skarsgard, Greg Germann