Movie Review: The Sisters Brothers

The Sisters Brothers *** ½ / *****

Directed by: Jacques Audiard.

Written by: Jacques Audiard and Thomas Bidegain based on the novel by Patrick DeWitt.

Starring: John C. Reilly (Eli Sisters), Joaquin Phoenix (Charlie Sisters), Jake Gyllenhaal (John Morris), Riz Ahmed (Hermann Kermit Warm), Rebecca Root (Mayfield), Allison Tolman (Girl Mayfield Saloon), Rutger Hauer (The Commodore), Carol Kane (Mrs. Sisters).

 

Jacques Audiard’s chose the Western genre to make his English language debut with The Sisters Brothers – an odd film, that lays somewhere between a loving homage to the genre, and a revisionist Western, with modern sensibilities – Audiard and company never quite settle on which. As such, the film does feel kind of shaggy at times, rambling along at its own pace like an Altman Western, and at times, wants to be something tougher and more violent like a Peckinpah Western. I don’t know that the mixture always works, and yet the movie remains entertaining and involving until the end – although its pleasures are more fleeting that much of Audiard’s previous work.

 

The film takes place in Oregon and then California during Gold Rush times. The title characters are Eli and Charlie Sisters (John C. Reilly and Joaquin Phoenix), a pair of skilled hitmen, who do the dirty work of The Commodore (Rutger Hauer), mostly without question. They are getting older though, and Eli is starting to look at life after the killing is done – settling down, getting married, etc. Charlie, who never looks beyond the next kill, the next drink, the next whorehouse, is precisely the opposite. He’s going to keep killing forever. Their latest job has them on the trail of Herman Kermit Warm (Riz Ahmed), a chemist who was passing through their town, and apparently let slip to The Commodore his latest chemical formula – something he says will light up all the gold in the water, making the usual difficult work of panning for gold simple. The Commodore has already sent John Morris (Jake Gyllenhaal) to track Warm, and keep his eyes on him until the Sisters get there – but the brother start to suspect that Morris and has actually teamed up with Warm, as they never seem to be able to keep pace.

 

The movie then is split up between these two odd pairs – with a lot more time with the Sisters, then the other two, but everyone getting their due. Reilly and Phoenix have a natural, relaxed chemistry together, and gradually we get to know them – and their backstory more. This is probably where The Sisters Brothers most resembles Audiard’s other films – in examining the past of his characters, to find what led them to violence in the first place – not to mention the slow buildup and the brutal explosion of violence in the first place. Reilly is really the star here – and the most complex character – a man capable of tremendous violence, but also vulnerability and sensitivity. He wants out – but he needs his brother to want out as well. Phoenix is fine in his role as well – it’s just a little more clichéd a role, the drunken psycho, although that doesn’t give his character credit for his depth either.

 

Because so much time is spent with them, and they are given more depth, Gyllenhaal and Ahmed have less to work with in their scenes. Gyllenhaal adopts a sort of British accent for some reason (and, miraculously, it works) and Ahmed uses his natural charm to great advantage here. Is he a con man, or not – you can never be quite sure.

 

Ultimately, The Sisters Brothers I don’t think ever quite reaches what it is aiming for. It wants to be an example of the genre, and a modern take on it, and yet never quite commits to either. It’s fascinating to watch, and gets quote emotional at points – watching as the Brothers care for each other, as each will have to save the other in some way shape or form. I just think that perhaps the film could have been better had it committed to either being more a classic, throwback Western, or something more comedic and surreal. It doesn’t commit to either, and as such, is stuck in between.