Your Sisters Sister review

Director: Lynn Shelton
(2012)

As effeminate as it may sound, I have a soft spot for romantic indie films. Big budget star studded RomComs are the bane of cinema, but by stripping away the falsities that come packaged with big studio filmmaking allows for talented directors to craft excellent work. Your Sisters Sister is that kind of film, free from the restrictions of generic mass produced shit like Friends with Kids and almost any Rachel McAdams film, allowing Writer/Director Lynn Shelton to make a film that wears true, genuine emotions and resonates with drama.

What helps bring the emotion of My Sisters Sister to the forefront is the use of a simple story. Jack (Mark Duplass) is (understandably) still grieving a year after losing his brother, so his BFF Iris (Emily Blunt) sends him to stay in her fathers spare cabin in the country in order to get some headspace. Upon his arrival at the secluded lodge he meets Hannah (Rosemarie Dewitt), Iris’ older sister who’s also looking for some privacy to clear her mind after a messy breakup. A night of heavy boozing and the surprise arrival of Iris add needed complexities to the tale which is as perversely funny as it is heart-warming.

Shelton manages to make Your Sisters Sister work by bringing together 3 genres and constructs a seamless blend that averts any banality that could crop up. This tone is set from the get go, Jacks botched speech about his dead brother being a sometimes asshole is awkwardly funny, and is followed by a chat from Iris that's tender and comforting in tone. In many directors hands this could cause for some harsh juxtaposition, 2 very differing scenes failing to garner cohesion with one another. Your Sisters Sister possesses no such trouble melding these varying tones, a talent that Shelton intelligently applies throughout.

In its simplest form, Your Sisters Sister is constructed from quality parts; each adding something necessary to the film. Shelton’s script brings the laughs and the tears, but if not for the impressive cast such talent would have been wasted. Duplass, Blunt and Dewitt tackle the screenplay with apparent ease despite the limited location and lack of other characters. When the narrative calls for it, the trio shift into high gear, delivering scenes of real emotion perfectly captured in gloriously long takes. Its scenes like this that elevate Your Sisters Sister to levels above most other indie- and for that matter mainstream- films, the brakes come off and we’re delivered a scene of blistering and memorable intensity. Sometimes this drama is applied a little thick, feeling more heavy-handed and less refined than the comedy elements. Yet this shouldn’t always be seen as a negative, events often call on moments of fierce passion in order to generate a sufficient payoff.

After a relatively fresh 90 minutes, Shelton shamelessly succumbs to the conventions of genre, even making sure to wrap things in a pretty bow. The final shot may suggest otherwise, but events resolve neatly before this attempted curveball aims to throw audiences of the scent. Yet despite this cliché, the way Shelton goes about delivering the resolution works thanks to the time invested into our trio. As a result we care, so much so the generic outcome isn’t as bothersome as one would think. As the credits roll, it becomes apparent that Your Sisters Sister is a powerful and confrontational film, capable of tackling difficult, fresh themes without breaking a sweat. Like many great titles this year, this diamond in the rough was unfairly overlooked and underrated.

8