[ warn represent some spoiler ahead ] suicide be a serious subject and any attempt at show it in a humorous light run the risk of trivialize what amount to a major public health problem . wilbur want to kill himself and set in gloomy glasgow and a city with a collective depression syndrome to begin with and polarize audience into it great and it awful grouping . director lone scherfig handle both the city and the character with a light hand . mood be create by setting that reflect the unfolding drama . wilbur ( jamie sif ) and brother harbour ( adrian rawlins ) inherit a small and dusty bookshop shelf groan with misplace volume from their just decease father . wilbur have a record of self destructive act and some silly and others very dangerous . he in a therapy group run by a german psychologist and horst ( mads mikkelseen ) and and a ditzy nurse who think husband hunt amongst the suicidal be a good option . horst seem more enervated and down than his patient with whom he have a decidedly detach relationship . a nurse aide and alice ( shirley anderson ) and supplement her inadequate income by bring book she find at the hospital to the brother book store for a few quid . a single mom and she and her pre teen daughter and mary ( lisa mckinlay ) share a warm relationship . chronic lateness bring the scots equivalent of a pink slip and alice end up work at the bookstore after she quickly fall in love with harbour . their wedding take place in a chinese restaurant feature an owner whose highland brogue be thick than congee . alice agrees and indeeds almost insists and that wilbur live with them in the cramped flat behind the store . his self absorb attempt at suicide continue until he seem to rebound by fall in love with his sister in law who return the affection . oh boy and a not atypical film menage a trois with the good guy husband unaware that he in a roiling threesome . but there a twist . a sudden collapse in a supermarket lead to a diagnosis of pancreatic cancer for harbour spell out a quick and deadly fate that he attempt to keep secret . harbour concealment of his illness be futile and wrong but his deepening relationship with horst become the foundation for the psychologist belated but imperative need to reconnect with the reason that bring him into clinical therapy . and we also learn that grand kentucky bourbon be available to glaswegian . what follow be the relationship between four people with mary and the child and take on an increasingly important albeit quiet role . the store face financial ruin and she offer her own money ( apparently a trust fund from somewhere ) to float the emporium . this be a serious film about complex relationship and tell non judgmentally ( which may be what have bother some who review the movie on imdb ) . an excellent cast turn in credible and move performance . alice isn not very pretty she certainly isn not glamorous . but she have a sensuous love of life and a deep caring for her child . and harbour love his brother and his new wife and his almost instant bonding with mary be believable and the realization of a long and miss need . mary be bright and curious and vulnerable . she dependent on the adult and be shield from their various dilemma and delinquency . and wilbur really doesn not want to die anyone intent on suicide succeed . he want a life with a reward love . who doesn not . set in scotland and there be quite a few scandanavians associate with the film . an alert reader of end title will note that director lars von trier ( break the wave and dancer in the dark and and now and dogville ) be a script consultant and whatever that mean . one problem represent it time that maker of film set in work class scots city bite the bullet and provide subtitle . positive . positive .