A Practical Guide to a Spectacular Suicide

A Practical Guide to a Spectacular Suicide is yet another film that managed to gain its funding through the use of the crowd, raising it’s £3000 through the use of Sponsume.  Directed by Graham Hughes and co written by him, Keith Grantham and Graeme McGeagh.  All 3 of whom only have one previous film to their name, 2010s The Big Slick which was made for only £200 and won a BAFTA New Talent Award for writing.  APGSS is a dark comedy and has been shown at the Edinburgh Film Festival, it’s another one that is unlikely to make its way to a wider cinema release, but should at some point be available in one form or another.

The film follows Tom Collins (Graeme McGeagh) who is a very determined young man, unfortunately he has focused all of that determination on committing suicide, something that he is not very good at.  The film opens with him attempting to walk into the ocean, before being saved by a passer-by and being charged with public disorder.  In order to combat his apparent inability to kill himself, he decides that he must plan the ultimate suicide and go out in a truly spectacular way.

Despite the films dark subject matter it is truly laugh a minute.  All the way through it there is a rich vein of what I can only describe as Scottish cynicism, with the characters more likely to insult each other than ever share a word of affection.  This comic sensibility works well with the darker tone of the movie and it allows for some fantastically funny conversations between the central character Tom and both his psychologist Dr. Watson (Patrick O’Brien) and the old man who his community service has seen him ordered to look after, Mr Neilson (Ray Crofter).  While some inventive animation scenes and a spectacular stop motion visit to an old theatre, means that the dark humour is kept from being completely overwhelming by some lighter moments.

The acting throughout is solid, if at times clunky, but there are several stand out performances.  Annabel Logan is fantastic as the love interest Eve, whose own problems are obviously there, but are never truly explained, something the actress herself spoke about in the post screening Q&A and explained that from her view, this was because of Tom’s own self-obsession during the time of the film.  Whether that was the intention or not, when you look at it that way it adds an extra sheen to an already interesting character.

A Practical Guide to a Spectacular Suicide is everything you could ask for from a dark comedy.  It makes you laugh but it also makes you think and while on occasion the jokes come a bit too thick and fast, meaning that a few lose their impact, it never loses both of those things.  The issue of suicide is obviously a serious one, but without ever appearing to diminish that, this small film has managed to find the humour in it.