Your Sister's Sister

Your Sister's Sister_720p(480P)

source: Your Sister's Sister

All I could keep thinking while watching this was "north American problems". (And I actually live within a 100 mile radius of where this was made.) But I tried to keep an open mind and see where the film maker was going before passing judgement. But the smarmy, over- simplified, instagram-moment ending just confirmed my initial impressions. Don't get me wrong, I watch a lot of indy and foreign movies and love finding those hidden gems but I am baffled at why stories of this sort get any traction and are given any merit in our culture at all. Why do the petty, self inflicted problems of these spoilt first world children matter to us? And what is the value in scrutinizing them in such agonizing detail? This just left me with a bad taste in my mouth. But of course this is just my opinion and your mileage may vary. Obviously there are some people out there that think this is one of the best films they have ever seen. I just found it to be a bunch of self- absorbed pretentious tripe. So much so that it prompted me to write this review. Ugh.

The soapy plot provides what may have been intended to be drama, but was instead a contrivance. For almost every scene, you could feel the actors trying to internalize the situation and improvise, almost as if they had read the description of that scene only that morning and were trying to assimilate their characters into it instead of the other way around. The movie kind of has that feel of being written as it is shot, and though this can sometimes cause an actor to grow into their part right before our eyes (and therefore project character growth), it instead is put together like a series of scenes in which these static characters find themselves. There is nothing about the characters that we find out in the course of this movie that we couldn't have guessed right from the beginning. That is, despite the intention of mining character-study type drama from what should be a character-driven dramatic situation, it becomes instead what feels like a bullet-point presentation on the character's reactions to it. The drinking scene is wonderful, and also the scene of the three of them discussing Iris's conquests. The improvised dialogue absolutely works in these situations, and guides the character portraits in interesting directions. Unexplored and ultimately useless directions, but directions nonetheless. The scenic montage at the end of the movie is nicely done for the situation it portrays, not the least reason because there is very little of the absurdly inauthentic dialogue that plagues the rest of the movie. Emily Blunt is good as a young widow, but it's not the visceral type of performance you might expect from a movie like this where deep primal feelings are supposedly explored and vented. The tone is oddly light and airy, and the actors may have picked up on that, or they may have caused it. Mark Duplass is particularly reluctant to allow his character to feel more than one thing at once, and it's difficult to tell if it's because the overall tone of the movie veers into melodrama or because he just doesn't believe in his character enough to give him any depth. Don't get me wrong, this is a very pleasant movie to watch. Blunt is pretty, Duplass has some amusing moments, and DeWitt has a very watchable awkwardly nihilistic manner about her. Usually, with aspects like these, combined with beautiful scenery, a movie isn't tough to get through. But don't expect much else. --- Spoiler Alert --- As an example of the superficiality of the tone, the only hint of the internal conflict in Iris upon confessing that she's in love with her dead husband's brother is when she says, "Is that weird?" This is a stupendously unsatisfactory line that is delivered as if she were saying she prefers kale over cabbage. From the plot to this point, we are led to believe that there should be other unexpressed conflicted feelings underneath, but there apparently aren't. And because we don't believe and aren't led to understand what is driving her to this conclusion, we can't really buy any of it.

I really enjoyed this movie. I've never written a review before, but had to for this one. Filmed in 12 days? Unbelievably well done. The interaction of the three main characters was s-o...r-e-a-l. Emily Blunt (love her accent), Rosemarie Dewitt and Mark Duplass effortlessly became three characters who could be anyone you know in your own town. The chemistry of their different relationships with each other was fresh and flawless, especially as they evolved. The comedic moments were well delivered, and the pulling-at-the-heartstrings moments, very real. The rustic cottage and waterfront location in Seattle where most of the movie took place was just beautiful. From Filming to Sound, my hat is off to Lynn Shelton the Writer and Director, and the entire cast and crew. I will enjoy watching this again. Thank you!

There are so many places to go regarding why this film was so bad. All I can say is that I'm glad I saw it on DVD rather than wasted time in the cinema for this one. First of all, the characters are too smug, and are far too clever. The plot was completely contrived. While I'm aware that having sex can get you pregnant, they made it seem that if you have sex once, you're definitely getting pregnant. In one of the scenes, Hannah and the guy get absolutely hammered on tequila, then both wake up the next morning as if they were drinking ice water all night. They're in their late 20's at least, and neither is even remotely hung over? Mark Duplass, who ironically, I saw last week in "Safety Not Guaranteed" is extremely unlikable. I'm not sure if this is how he was supposed to play his character, or just that he's an extremely unlikable kind of guy. Finally, the ending that is supposed to be a cliffhanger? When she was testing the pregnancy strip, I knew that this was exactly how they were going to end this one.

This is not the worst indie movie made, but comes close. Story doesn't seem real and the actors trying to act NATURAL with over lapping dialog seems contrived and too artificial. Movies are always better with a written script and actors who don't pretend to be REAL. There's nothing more nauseating than this type of phony acting. The end of the film leaves on 'up in the air' which another drawback. Skip this one and stick to a main stream film. Forget these stupid indies that try to be real and look artificial instead. Better luck next time with these actors, especially Emily Blunt and Rosemarie DeWitt. The guy was terrible and should look into a job as a waiter. It didn't help that his character was dumb as could be. And what's with his wrecking his bike? Looks like more stupid improv.

I suppose I should state, as other reviewers have felt the need to, that I have watched and enjoyed my fair share of indie movies - two hours of meandering dialogue is fine as long as it's done well. This wasn't. There are some amusing moments sure, but it didn't come together overall. The characters are generic and ultimately went nowhere and the plot tying them together is fantastically absurd. ** Spoiler ** Iris' sister purposely lies and manipulates a situation to try and get herself pregnant by Iris' best friend. Not only does Iris find it within herself to look past this after a day or so of solitude and silence but also offers to help raise the baby (if there is one). Now perhaps I'm missing the point and this is a story of forgiveness and the value of keeping important relationships in your life going, however the message I took away from it is that you can be a pretty contemptible person, do nothing in the way of seeking forgiveness other than a shrug of the shoulders and a "oh, aren't I terrible" and you get the rewards you were ultimately after. Brilliant!

This movie exemplifies the plague of the American indie movie: It all starts out so well. Honest, believable, funny action and dialogue. Good acting. The movie is on to something, for sure. And things get dark and complicated and the viewer wonder's to himself how will it all work out — and oh, it surely can't. But then the main character has some deus machina insight, hidden from himself and everybody else and it all work out just dandy and all conflict and ambiguity dissolves in a pink cloud of love and understanding. In this movie the lesbian sister of the main character's love interest tricks him into focking her with a condom with holes for sperm. As a consequence the main character is so distressed that he sleeps in a tent a couple of nights, but after trashing a red bike comes to the realization that he can both love one sister and be the pseudo-father of the other's child. The film ends as they all gather lovingly around the pregnancy test. Makes me wanna puke. And the tragedy is it all started out so well. It always does in these scared and escapist indie movies.

I rather like the three leading actors in this film, and the story line could have been interesting if it was more developed, but essentially, this film is disappointing. The whole movie is various conversations between a man, and two half-sisters. The dialog, direction and acting don't feel real, and the abundance of talk, talk, talk, becomes very tedious. Another criticism I have is that the lesbian character is not believable as a lesbian. I say this not because she is physically attractive and feminine looking, but because my gaydar tells me she's straight... it's just a feeling you get listening to her and looking at her. Emily Blont is probably a good actress, but because of the limitations of this film, her talents do not come through. And the male lead (I don't know his name) is very frustrating to watch... basically he's one big ZERO.... a loser and boring. I say, skip this flick.