THE SISTERS is an honest attempt at American tragedy. We are living in the American century (expiration date: 2045 a.d.). Tragedy is historically the result of Fate, deprivation or ethnic conflict. Since America is poly-theistic, wealthy and multi-cultural, it is difficult to craft an authentically American tragic narrative. Americans have too many choices to be reasonably cornered-into making a tragic decision. American movies have historically been optimistic, that's why our entertainment has been so successfully exported around the world. We delivered Art Deco opulence with "Fred and Ginger" during the depths of the Great Depression, THE SOUND OF MUSIC during the escalation of the Vietnam War, and JAWS during the Watergate detoxification. America is not a tragedy-ridden culture, so we must stage our tragedies on an intimate scale, keep it close to home, so to speak. THE SISTERS wisely keeps the tragedy close to the chest. Child incest. Adolescent sexual abuse co-dependency. Marital emotional battering. Adultery. Homosexuality. Addiction to crystal methampetimine. And a jagged little green pill called "jealousy". Every American can relate to jealousy: that is our cultural Achille's Heel, after all. By layering one Hot Button topic over another, THE SISTERS leaves many promising topics unresolved, and perhaps fails to resolve any single topic satisfactorily. But compared to films such as ONE THOUSAND ACRES or THE UPSIDE OF ANGER, THE SISTERS covers its' territory with greater assurance and less contrivance. That is largely due to the lead performance by the always-impressive Maria Bello. Bello's movie career is one of depicting small hurts that can spiral into tragedy. Bello doesn't roll with the punches that life throws, but no one takes a punch better than Maria. Bello is the actress that Courtney Love aspired to be back in the 1990's; raw, whip-smart and reckless; and a performer who always gives 110%. Bello's eyes are not blue, her posture isn't perfect, and she doesn't have an Australian accent. But Bello knows how to walk in high heels, has more than held her own against no less than Mel Gibson (PAYBACK), and registers every emotional slight with the facility of a Juliette Binoche. Bello made a romantic leading man out of William H. Macy (THE COOLER) and convincingly kicked Viggo Mortensen to the curb (A HISTORY OF VIOLENCE). Bello takes potentially-thankless roles (the proprietor of COYOTE UGLY, for example) and slowly squeezes each moment into a diamond. In THE SISTERS, Bello plays a survivor of child abuse in an empty marriage who puts everyone she loves through hell by her relentless airing of familial dirty laundry. As Glenn Close might say, Bello will not be ignored! But unlike the proficient but somewhat empty tirades of Elizabeth Taylor in WHO'S AFRAID OF VIRGINIA WOOLF?, Bello uses her voice like a concert pianist: she is never just reciting the lines or playing to the back wall of the theater. Bello modulates her performance so that we can forgive the bombast and embrace the small truths which she utters. While playing a character who always has a frog ready to leap out of her throat, Bello never loses sight of the humanity behind the histrionics. It is one hell of a turn! By contrast, no one is better at phoning it in than Rip Torn, who; although he has the best lines in the movie; is also the least fully-drawn character. Tony Goldwyn is artificially parachuted-in to this family's seventh circle of hell, but he manages to acquit himself admirably. Eric McCormick starts in a dark place on the balcony and marinates there for the full stretch: we never really find out what's eating Eric. Is Erika Cristensen (TRAFFIC, anyone?) to be cast as an upper-class Meth addict for the rest of her career? Cristensen's recovery is remarkably painless, especially when compared to, say, Jamie Foxx's in RAY. Mary Stuart Masterson, like her fellow Brat Pack alumni Mare Winningham, brings effortless professionalism to roles that contain only hints of a person with an inner life. She is once again not allowed an emotional breakthrough in her buttoned-up Academic character. By setting the story in academia, a certain stuffiness threatens to muck-up the narrative but, again, Bello keeps it raw from tip to tail. In higher education, objectivity is in short supply and access to the inner circle is highly restricted. Just like family, if you think about it. Such isolation allows otherwise avoidable indiscretions to become violations of murderous magnitude. THE SISTERS recognizes that if you never let the cat out of the bag, when you least expect it, that cat will hand you your hat. As a warning against letting a little all-American jealousy get the better of you, THE SISTERS delivers the goods!
Review of The Sisters
