I Don’t Know Whether to Slit My Wrists or Leave Them Long (2013) - Foreign Film Friday

 

Number Rolled: 27

Movie Name/Year: I Don’t Know Whether to Slit My Wrists or Leave Them Long (2013)

Tagline: None

Genre: Comedy, Drama

Length: 102 minutes

Rating: NR

Production Companies: Itaca Films

Producer: Enrique Carrasco, Luis Ernesto Franco, Santiago Garcia Galvan, Alex Garcia, Joceline Hernandez, Bertha Kaim, Rafael Ley, Luis Gerardo Mendez, Ludwika Paleta, Andres Tagliavini, Zuria Vega, Araceli Velazquez, Eugenio Villamar

Director: Manolo Caro

Writer: Manolo Caro

Actors: Ludwika Paleta, Luis Ernesto Franco, Luis Gerardo Mendez, Raul Mendez, Zuria Vega, Rossy de Palma, Livia Brito, Claudia Schmidt

Stunt Doubles: None

Languages

Speech Available: Spanish

Subtitles Available: English, Portuguese, Spanish

Blurb from Netflix: Lust, secrets and other predicaments come crashing into the steady lives of quiet neighbors when a former soccer player moves into their complex.

Selina’s Point of View:

I didn’t particularly enjoy this film. I didn’t find the characters relatable. I didn’t like the script – I felt like roughly 20% of it was not shit that people would actually say, though that might have been a cultural thing.

It wasn’t all bad, though.

I Don’t Know Whether to Slit My Wrists or Leave Them Long was one of those movies that starts at the end and then explains how the characters got there. I really, REALLY liked how the creators resolved that storyline. I didn’t expect what happened. There was plenty of foreshadowing, but enough red herrings to throw me off.

I really couldn’t get into the film aside from that, though.

I don’t hate it, I just don’t care about it. Maybe it’s for a different demographic.

Cat’s Point of View:

The title of this movie has to be one of the strangest I’ve ever encountered. It makes me wonder a bit what other names got left on the proverbial cutting room floor. Were they weirder? Was one of them more fitting? We may never know.

I’m ok with that, really. Just saying.

Maybe the film makers wanted to keep us guessing a bit. I had no idea what to expect from this movie based on the title alone. A quick glance at the Netflix info told me it was supposed to be a comedy – a comedy with a reference to suicide in its name.

What do you know – I actually liked it, and quite a bit at that.

Sure there was a good bit of darkness mixed in with the laughter, but it was balanced well. This wasn’t too heavy handed as a drama and the levity didn’t push over the top. The characters felt like real people with real situations – messy situations. That’s life, though, right?

The subtitles were an occasional problem. The film used small white text over the actual movie rather than a bold contrasting color or utilizing the space below the ‘letterbox’ of the movie frame. It made it a bit difficult to read at times. Aside from that, I found it pretty easy to follow along.

I’d easily watch this one again and recommend it to anyone who doesn’t mind the occasional annoying subtitle issue.

Rotten Tomatoes Critic Score – None

Rotten Tomatoes Audience Score – 72%

Netflix’s Prediction for Selina – 3.5/5

Selina’s Trust-the-Dice Score – 2/5

Netflix’s Prediction for Cat – 2.5/5

Cat’s Trust-the-Dice Score – 3.5/5

The Random Rating: R

P.S. Short post-credits scene.

Movie Trailer: