Sister My Sister

I loved Sister, My Sister...in fact, I bought it without having seen it first based on recommendation alone, and I haven't regretted it one bit. I think that the acting was great, by the entire cast; I felt that the storyline (based on an actual murder case and subsequent play), though revisited in this film, is still relevant in that it addresses issues of classism, oppression, and societal stigmatization. To dismiss this film as merely an incestuous, murderous lesbian romp is a mistake. Even though the lesbian subject seemed to be a large factor, there is a definite timidity to the photography of the sex scenes, in that there was more in the way of well framed shots than fleshy action given the intensity of feeling portrayed. So probably, the film isn't as offensive as the description might imply. I feel that the film was evenly handled throughout. Even the murders, while fairly gruesome as described in the voiceover of the trial, weren't disgustingly splatter film-like, they, like the sex scenes left much to the imagination. I recommend this film highly, it's not at all fluffy feel-good schlock, it's disturbing, dark and painful - that's what makes it so good!

There is a major player in this extremely fine film who goes all but unmentioned: the work of cinematographer Ashley Rowe is some of the finest on film, creating an atmosphere solely within the confines of a home made dark by lack of light and by brooding madness and murder. The effect achieved is nothing short of miraculous and further adds to the importance of this under-rated movie.

Based on the infamous Papin sisters' murder of their employer and daughter in 1932 in France, SISTER MY SISTER is based on a play by Wendy Kesselman (who also wrote the mesmerizing screenplay) and is directed by the imaginatively fine Nancy Meckler. Two sisters - Christine the eldest (Joely Richardson) and Lea (Jodhi May) are shown during the titles in black and white as poor orphans separated to different ends. As the film begins Christine has introduced her estranged beloved Lea to her employer, the rigid and strange Madame Danzard (Julie Walters) and her wallflower daughter Isabelle (Sophie Thursfield). Lea is hired by the penny pinching Madame Danzard and the two sisters co-serve as maids to the household. Christine and Lea view each other as not only sisters but as lovers and it is this latter role that leads Madame Danzard (spying contemptibly on the girls) that is the final straw in Madame's mistreatment of the girls that leads to the rather shocking murder of both Madame Danzard and Isabelle. We know from the start - both from the infamous case and from the opening sequences where the blood of the deed is seen along the stairwell - what the ending will be: it is the progress to that end that concerns the film.

Each of the actresses is brilliant in their roles, roles that are far cries from the usual types that each actress has played. Julie Walters manages to ooze vitriol while moments later being oddly comedic in her la-la land of dancing to her Victrola. Joely Richardson is terrifyingly strange and Jodhi May says more with her facial expressions than legions of actors do with complex scripts. But again the physical ominous presence of the house of bad things is so magnificently created by Rowe's creative photography that is becomes of equal importance as a character. The musical score by Stephen Warbeck works solidly to convey the descent into madness of the two sisters. A brilliant tour de force for all concerned and highly recommended for those who love fine acting and dark thrillers. Grady Harp

It could be said that good acting is that which requires a minimum of words to convey its idea or stir up the viewer's emotions. In this way, Jodhi May has proven herself as an astounding actress. Meek, yet passionate in her role as a sweet repressed sister, she steals the show with a third the dialogue of her costars. The movie demonstrates how facile the wealthy can be in their overestimation of the subservient's tolerance for callousness and mistreatment. This is a quiet movie that seems to soak in the sound around its viewing space like air through a partially open door---a phantom moving silent through the room, but not without leaving its indelible footprints behind.

"Sister My Sister" tells of two live-in sibling housemaids working for a stingy, authoritarian dowager and her homely adult daughter in 1930's France. A dark, trudging, and eerily claustrophobic psychodrama, the film's compelling story waxes in severity as unspoken pressures and silent circumstance tear a rift between maids and mistress. Although the film deals with repressed sexuality, incest, pent-up hostility, and madness, it relies more on atmosphere and finely nuanced behavior to tell its story than in-your-face graphic sex, nudity, and mayhem. A masterwork of the less-is-more school film making which shows how so much can be accomplished with so little, "SMS" is a paradigm for indie auteurs and a spellbinding watch for the few. (B+)

Of the films that I have seen over the past 2 years, I have been displeased with how homogenized they've been. But when I rented this movie, I was totally shocked by the power of it. I was completely enthralled the entire time. The darkness of it was both scary and intriguing. The surprise element for me was the sisters' escalating relationship from loving to obsessive. I absolutely loved this movie as it explored the depths of lonely souls and the drowning effect that never ending servitude and isolation can bring.