With themes touching on suicidal depression, child abuse and illness, disability, physical violence, death and biblical levels of sin and redemption - you might conclude this wasn't exactly a laugh-fest.
However, the portrayal of those undeniably dark subjects is often framed by dry, 'gallows' humour, wrapped in occasional surreal dream imagery or some other imaginative visual take. There's no pretension here either - it's an indie film, but this is less art-house more rough-house after a night at the pub.
I laughed out loud several times (to put that in context I am not unacquainted with depression myself, or indeed the real-life results of a suicide, there is a gulf of difference between laughing with these 'victims' and at them).
The soundtrack is pretty decent if you're into alt-blues/indie-folk, there are some scenes where it almost descends into a psych-musical (I wouldn't have minded it going further down that road).
Whilst the dark humour often works, and there is something approaching a positive take on redemption - there was, for me, also a prevalent undertone of near-nihilism - like the main protagonist - the film is navigating a perilous balancing act between hope and hopelessness.
To counter this, the line: 'You can think of multiple reasons to die, but only need one reason to live' could be offered as the spiritual core - also, sometimes you just have to laugh at the absurdity of life.
However, the portrayal of those undeniably dark subjects is often framed by dry, 'gallows' humour, wrapped in occasional surreal dream imagery or some other imaginative visual take. There's no pretension here either - it's an indie film, but this is less art-house more rough-house after a night at the pub.
I laughed out loud several times (to put that in context I am not unacquainted with depression myself, or indeed the real-life results of a suicide, there is a gulf of difference between laughing with these 'victims' and at them).
The soundtrack is pretty decent if you're into alt-blues/indie-folk, there are some scenes where it almost descends into a psych-musical (I wouldn't have minded it going further down that road).
Whilst the dark humour often works, and there is something approaching a positive take on redemption - there was, for me, also a prevalent undertone of near-nihilism - like the main protagonist - the film is navigating a perilous balancing act between hope and hopelessness.
To counter this, the line: 'You can think of multiple reasons to die, but only need one reason to live' could be offered as the spiritual core - also, sometimes you just have to laugh at the absurdity of life.