Are You Serious? - The Sisters (2008) Discussion

[–] freakshow20 17 years ago

What about the movie makes it so bad? I enjoyed it, and while I know that others aren't going to like it, I would like to hear why. I thought the movie was well-written and superbly acted. There were some slow parts, I will admit, but generally the story kept my attention.

What did you dislike about it?

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I like to make fun of people who make fun of other people.

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[–] Springydawg 17 years ago

Given my relatively high expectations because of the solid cast, I thought it was lousy. Like a overly melodramatic soap opera staged as a play, badly adapted to a movie about a bunch of one-note characters who weren't interesting or likeable. Basically, the whole thing seemed to be a patchwork of scenes that played like acting exercises. Maybe a few of the cast members thought the story itself wasn't strong enough (or original enough) to hold the thing together, so they thought playing over the top might make it more interesting. It really didn't. Although, it was pretty (unintentionally) laughable at times.

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[–] ohdontpanic42 13 years ago

I agree with you. It heightened my disappointment because I knew it was based on the Chekov play, if very loosely.

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[–] IMPAwards 17 years ago

I can't give it a proper review as I have only watched the first 40 minutes of it, but I fear that I am not going to make it any further. A rare thing because I am usually stubborn enough to watch most movies to the end. I have always been a big MSM fan so I wanted to check it out. However, everything about it so far is extremely poorly written and painfully generic. It's like a bad sit-com. I was actually ready to give up after the 7 minute mark but a morbid "car crash" mentality keeps me watching to see just how bad it will get.

The style of dialog may work okay in a play but on film it is completely unbelievable. People simply do not talk like that. Bad enough that they are all so irritating but they are also nothing more than bad caricatures. I'm sure they will gain a little depth as the film goes along and we will learn to love each and every one of them despite their flaws, but I've already completely lost patience.

It doesn't even make any sense. We have the painfully obvious birthday party scene where everyone shouts surprise, only to discover that it is not Irene at the door. (Gee, never seen that before!) Then a couple more guests show up and several minutes later we learn that Irene should just be getting out of class now. Why would they have expected her earlier? Childish writing.

Am I being too harsh? No, I don't think so. The movie is just plain awful.

The IMP
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[–] The_Film_Addict 17 years ago

I also found this film to be disapointing. First off, all these characters do is fight and fight and fight and in the end nothing ever gets resolved. Not only that but these characters are just quite low. What I also didn't like was that this story is just insanly structured meaning that it didn't have a life of it's own. As I mentioned before, nothing gets resolved and this really hurts the film. The film is obviously exploring family, secrets, how we treat each other, so to finsh a film not really putting a conclusion to the story just hurts it. I think this film just keeps going over and over and over...really what kept me watching was the never ending fights bewteen everyone. One thing I liked were the preformances, I found that was one of the reinforcements of the film, however, it wasn't enough to make this film good. Oh, and one more thing...I think this film would have worked better on stage rahter than on screen. As I said the writting in the film seems like its just simply stage talk.

I don't know what futuristic utopia you live in, but in the world I live in, a b*tch need a gun.
"Death Proof"

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[–] shuia-1 17 years ago

I totally agree.
And I have never come onto imdb and said: "what a sh*t movie"
But I honestly did not enjoy it - badly acted, actually OVER acted, as if they were on a stage. a terrible script - it was so stilted. I understand now that it was based on a play - I suppose it did not translate to the screen then.
Sad.

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[–] filmfancy 13 years ago

SPOILER WARNING:

As I mentioned before, nothing gets resolved and this really hurts the film. The film is obviously exploring family, secrets, how we treat each other, so to finsh a film not really putting a conclusion to the story just hurts it.

I think it does get resolved. Irene, the youngest sister, finally makes a decision on her own--she goes outside to be with David as he's being put into the ambulance. Her older sisters were always trying to protect her from reality, which led to her confusion and drug habit. She finally disobeys Marcia, who had tried to get her to calm down by playing the piano as she always did, and runs outside. I found it to be symbolic of her new-found freedom.

The conclusion is that Irene is finally becoming her own person, unafraid of accepting reality. Her 12-step program has taught her to be honest about herself, unlike her sisters--Olga, who is in the closet, about her sexuality and about Marcia's abuse; and Marcia, who is in a loveless marriage.

Her brother Andrew is also asserting his independence from the family by choosing to support his wife despite his sisters' disapproval. He is finally placing his own happiness before theirs, which is why he also sold their father's home without first consulting them. This is also symbolic of his wanting to let go of the past, while they want to hang onto the house and its false representations.

Irene wanted to move into that house with David because she was fed lies and illusions about it by her sisters. She will be better off starting out somewhere new with David.

So despite David getting hurt (hopefully not seriously), it was a positive ending. Two of the siblings broke free from the falsehoods and constraints of their family.

"And all the pieces matter."

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