Siblings

A movie that I picked up out of desperation ended up being one of the best I've seen in a while. Mind you, the movie's pretty screwed. Then again, so am I, and my guess is that most of the people reading this are as well. The acting was pretty top notch, and this movie has something that's no longer common place...character development. You see the growth and maturity of the characters by the end...for better or for worse. All in all, this is a great movie, if just a tad awkward at times. Be sure to check it out.

Just a tip, be sure to catch the little clip at the end of the credits (thank you fast forward). It brings the movie to a nice and proper close.

There's a lot to love about 'Siblings' great cast, great production quality, and great premise. Just like 'Flowers In The Attic' the forbidden fruit is always the sweetest. But somehow the whole thing just never comes together. It we're teased with a recipe for a great story but never get to taste a satisfying dish.

The plot: I've read many different synopsizes online and most of them are only half right. First off, I wouldn't describe this as a "dark comedy" at all. The movie never attempts to be comically. Also I wouldn't describe the parents' deaths as "murder."

What is accurate about the plot is that this revolves around four children in a Jerry Springer style family with so many marriages, stepparents, and half blood relatives that even the kids can't figure it out. This dysfunctional family just happens to be rich living in upper class Canada.

The film opens with the with their grandfather's funeral whom had been the head of the household and the only thing keeping their drunk, snobby, and nasty stepparents in check. The kids even say, "Things are going to suck from now on."

It's obvious that this draws heavily from 'Flowers In The Attic.' Four kids trapped in a big house by their abusive family, who end up forming their own family unit with the two teens as husband and wife playing parents to the two younger kids.

The stepparents end up accidentally driving off a cliff while taking the family dog to be abandoned because they're too cheap to actually put it down.

The kids obviously attempt to cover up their deaths so they can continue living together as a family.

The setting is very interesting. It all takes place around Christmas time, smart, since Christmas and snow go so well together. The lesson here is if you are going to make a movie in Canada in July have it take place on Christmas so the snow will seem more fitting. And take down all French language product placement. (hint hint 'Dawn of the Dead' 2004.)

The musical score is a real mixed bag. 50% of the score are rock or Danny Elfman style renditions of public domain Christmas songs which add a lot the to atmosphere. However the other 50% sounds like the annoying rock scores played during Lifetime movies. As I said, a mix bag.

So there's a lot to like about this movie, such as the growing sexual tension between teens Joe and Margaret. FACE IT that's the only reason anyone even saw this movie, the false promise of forbidden romance in the trailer. Unfortunately as I said before, much of this film is just as tease. Their relationship doesn't even evolve romantically.

We're also teased about Margaret being abused by her stepfather Nicholas Campbell ('DiVinci's Inquest.') She's afraid of being molested as only her grandfather could protect her. However, DiVinci doesn't actually do anything. Hence, there's no drama and no real hatred of DiVinci. All we needed was just one scene of him coming on to her.

The plot could be interesting in dealing with the practicalities of the kids continuing their lives without anyone in the community knowing about their parents' deaths. However... most of the time is wasted on boring movie tropes about how they must go back to the crash scene and do the typical stupid things characters in movies do.

The children are all straight out of a modeling agency but that doesn't make them likable characters. The two youngest kids seem like robots. When the little girl asks Joe to take her to her Christmas pageant he responds, "What? Forget it, we're not fxxxing going!" and she doesn't even act upset.

Likewise Joe and Margaret bicker more than they have any kind of sexual tension.

So this begs the question, why are the kids doing this? If they don't get along what's the point of fighting to stay together? There's no crime to be covered up and it's already established they're going to receive their grandfather's inheritance. So just tell the police their parents are missing. The police will eventually find the accident scene and the kids can go live with other relatives, or foster homes and still cash in on their grandfather's money.

This is the type of film which had so much promise but ends up falling into all the classic movie tropes of dumb characters.

Still, it's worth a watch. There are positive elements of good film making.

I got a chance to see the sneak preview of this movie in Toronto and had mixed feelings about it. For a black comedy to be successful, it needs to be REALLY funny. It needs to be so funny that it kind of blocks out the disturbing darkness of it. If a black comedy fails to do this, then its usually just sick. SIBLINGS is kind of caught in the middle. Parts of it are hilarious. Parts of it aren't.

It is about 4 non blood related siblings with evil step parents. So evil, that the 4 siblings want theses step parents to die. The rest of the movie is the kids not knowing what to do with the bodies, and annoying relatives and neighbors wondering where their parents are. Some sequences are very funny, but some are tiresome.

There's the hot older sister, who has brainless sex with some guy in a truck every night, the oldest brother, the one who kills the parents; you know, the responsible one. There's the death obsessed 10 year old, who's shtick gets boring after 5 minutes, and there's the ADORABLE youngest girl. She has lots of cute one liners about you know, parents dying and stuff like that.

The chemistry is great between the four of them. That makes the movie. They work very well together and are really believable.

Bottom line: definitely has its moments, and if you like these kind of movies, then you should go see it. But regarding black comedies, don't expect Very Bad Things (the KING of Black humor movies)

Let me first say, this movie is darkly hilarious! I mean, you wouldn't think that a movie about kids killing their parents could have such characteristics, but I was nothing short of stunned. It's just so sarcastically funny, and it kind of just keeps you on your toes, not knowing what's next. Some movies that I haven't heard of much tend to be boring in many parts, but this one was just so interesting and so sarcastically funny that you can't wait to see what happens next. My favorite part would probably be the poem during the recital, and I've been looking for a copy of it... if I can't find one, I'll just go copy it out myself. And Alex Campbell, who plays the oldest kid (I think his name in the movie was Joe...) is extremely hot! I dunno, he just seems so appealing and... yeah, just go rent it, 'cause honestly, it's so fun to watch. And it's so fun to watch Alex. Okay, I'm done here.

The filmmakers here tried something and failed. It was a noble attempt at something very delicate and I suspect that they will eventually succeed at capturing this balance somehow. Commentors here call it black humor, but there is something more dear here in the children's reach. It isn't Lemony Snicket. Its "The Ice Storm."

Failure or not, they did something well. Sarah Polley is an amazing young actress who can do what I call folded acting: where she observes her character and conveys the observation. This allows her to play special roles. Here she is in the story as our surrogate who watches. She can't save the story, but she does her job.

Ted's Evaluation -- 2 of 3: Has some interesting elements.