The Sisters (2005)

The Sisters has an interesting scenario and will keep you guessing. Although it's good entertainment for a slow night, it's slightly over "dialoged" where you loose the rhythm, it has a tendency to feel like a play more than a movie, and the editing could be easily improved, especially for the cut scenes. The character of the "beautiful" sister can easily get on somebody's nerve, but it is well played as all the sister the sisters are, and even the brother to some extent. The other characters are much weaker.Not bad, worth being seen if you feel like seeing a family going through theatrical drama.

I went to the video store last weekend not really knowing which horrible studio film I wanted to fall asleep to - the weekend prior I watched Hillary Swank's awful film THE REAPING... good premise, poorly executed. And why an Oscar winner starred, I have no idea?? Which brought me to THE SISTERS, and also probably answers my last question - Swank never could of wrapped her head around the dialogue with the same wit and sarcasm Maria Bello is able to execute. Why Bello hasn't won an Oscar, I have no idea -- she most definitely should of won a few awards for her star turn in THE SISTERS -- if not an Oscar, at least an Independent Spirit. This film gives it's viewers something magical to hold onto - rich dialogue that speaks to the soul and the mind (words with more than 1 or 2 syllables, oh my!!); actors who act with passion for a project and a screenplay they must of really believed in - because you know they didn't get paid for this film and you can't pull the wool over this many stars eyes!! Director Arthur Allan Seidelman has been around for a while and brings his A-game to adapting Chekov's masterpiece. The writer is a wizard of vocabulary who obviously understood the essence of what old Anton was trying to teach us all. Kudos to the writer, director, actors and crew - your efforts to bring quality American cinema to the screen is much appreciated!

'The Sisters' is a lovely little family drama that I nearly missed. Obviously, I was glad I didn't.At first, the movie just looks like two hours of people fighting with each other, and it is. But (highly due to Ms. Bello's performance)there is so much more than that: a human aspect and real characters (for the most part). However one-note the people may be, the writer adds little things here and there to make them diverse and relatable.Maria Bello, as always, is amazing. She plays the angry sister, the one who is always prepared for an argument. Her performance is the best thing about the film. Bello expertly shows the changes her character experiences over the course of the movie. In the beginning, she is just shown as a snotty, sarcastic, rude woman. Over time, she lets us see the hidden vulnerability of a normally dull character, and by the end of the movie, Bello not only plays her part but becomes it, creating a human out of a very underwritten role.Erika Christensen was a surprise. While she is not Evan Rachel Wood or Scarlett Johansson, she still has plenty talent for someone so young. With only one above average performance to her name (Traffic), I expected much less of her but she blew me away with her performance as the shy little sister. She is quite promising and again, I hope to see more of her.The rest of the cast is just as good. Elizabeth Banks plays her role perfectly. She makes a seemingly one-dimensional person show more emotion than expected. Mary Stuart Masterson is also good, but I found her performance the most lacking.Now for the flaws: the screenplay. Truthfully, they are all supposed to be college professors or students, but the vocabulary used is the most advanced I've seen in a film. This may sound like a stupid flaw, but it was the thing I noticed the most while watching this movie as it is as unrealistic as possible. It proves effective in a multitude of arguments, but it doesn't reveal anything about the characters aside from the fact that they are inhumanly smart. The other flaw is that the brother barely has any historical background shown, while his sisters reveal many of their memories; however, he is never in them. If the filmmakers had explored the characters, their relationships, and their motivation more, some of their actions wouldn't seem so absurd or out of place.A very charming movie about anger, forgiveness, and family. ***/****.

After seeing "The Family Stone" on a recent airline flight I though I had seen the worst film ever made (after "Waterworld" of course). I unfortunately just sat through "The Sisters" as a part of the Key Cinema program.This film can best be described as a high quality audio-video recording of a mediocre play employing small screen actors. I imagine that the play might be considered "good". As a movie, it's just awful. The dialogue between the actors actually becomes annoying. I love plays. I love good theater actors. But I want to see them "in" the theater, not when I go to a movie!!As for the actors.... Let's see - Eric McCormack as a brooding professor who only speaks in sarcastic remarks - what a stretch! I kept waiting for Grace to show up. Rip Torn? Chris O'Donnell? Mary Stuart Masterson?? WOW - what a powerful big screen cast - NOT!! I'm sure that there is a demographic that will enjoy this movie on Lifetime or Oxygen. However, I'm not so sure after my wife overheard comments in the ladies room from several "mature" women who also thought the movie was "dreadful"!!I imagine Anton Chekhov is turning over in his grave about now.........