Judging from the cover of Living Will you would swear that the buddy comedy-drama between a man and his friend’s pranky-happy ghost had Bam Margera and Ryan Dunn in the lead roles. You’d only be half right; Dunn does play the recently deceased friend who gets his kicks by screwing with the heads of the living. Bam, however, has but a five-minute cameo and then he’s gone for good instead of playing the guy screwing his dead friend’s cousin. Guess where Gerard Haitz, the actor who plays that part, appears on the cover? Nowhere. In fact, his name isn’t even there. Lionsgate has no qualms about fooling audiences into thinking Living Will is a buddy flick between Margera and Dunn made just before the latter died in a car accident – but it’s not, and because of that, the film makes very little sense in a number of ways.
Will (Haitz) and Belcher are an unlikely pair of best friends. Will is the quintessential responsible guy trying to do something with his life after years of slacking and Belcher is his sarcastic friend who loves to trip people and get into trouble. This dynamic doesn’t change when Belcher dies, but it does begin to wear on the ghost of the man as his one connection to the living world, Will, seems to be moving on. When Will starts dating Belcher’s cousin (April Scott), what fun they were having together turns sour and the two must find a new way to be friends.
The funniest part about Living Will is the revelation that Dunn was actually a pretty talented comedic actor, even when he doesn’t have things flying at his head. It does make a little sense that Haitz’s name was omitted from top billing, because the man can’t hold up his half of the film. Every line he delivers feels hammy and whether it’s his acting or the writing, but he never makes the friendship between him and Dunn believable. When the film largely ceases to be a comedy, after Will and Belcher square off over who Will is dating, Dunn has to shift to a more dramatic sensibility and he still manages to do a good job. Audiences might get suckered in on the false pretense that Dunn and Bam are just screwing around, but they’ll walk away from a mediocre dramatic comedy that shows Dunn had a future in acting before it came crashing to an end.
DVD Bonus Features
The extras include a trite tribute to Ryan Dunn created from blooper footage shot during production (it feels woefully half-ass considering this film was really a blip in his career), deleted scenes, a brief behind the scenes featurette, and an incredibly long (16-minute) outtake reel. Now, why the last featurette, a reel of slate gags (outtakes that happened when people were clicked the slate and saying “Take 1”), wasn’t just included in the main outtake reel is beyond me, but it’s not nearly as funny.
"Living Will..." is on sale October 4, 2011 and is rated R. Comedy. Directed by Matthew Lauyer. Written by Roy Koriakin, Allan Delikat. Starring Bam Margera, Ryan Dunn, Gerard Haitz, April Scott.
