| In
the tradition of absurdist black comedies like the classic Harold
and Maude, Invitation to a Suicide is about a man selling tickets
to his own suicide to save his father's life. Raised in an insular
Polish immigrant neighborhood in Brooklyn where his only future would
be as a poor baker like his father, Kaz Malek attempts to steal from
a Russian mobster and run away. Not cut out for a life of crime, he
ends up owing $10,000 to the mobster instead, who threatens to kill
his father if he doesn't pay. Unable to pay or face his father's death,
Kaz comes up with a novel plan: he'll hang himself and sell tickets
to the show. He'd rather be a dead hero than a living loser with the
guilt of his father's death hanging over his head. Kaz is surprised
to find both the mobster and the neighborhood extremely supportive
of this idea, not to mention his father. But even if he can sell the
tickets will he really go through with it? By the time this dark comedy
reaches its surprising conclusion, Kaz learns that sometimes embracing
death is the only way to a better life. |
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