The Sisters Brothers

The Sisters Brothers is a bizarre alchemic brew of ultra-violence, pantomime humour and absorbing study of the human condition.

Join Eli and Charlie Sisters as they vie for different sides of a conflict in 1850s Oregon, Charlie baying for blood, booze and carnage, Eli, a gentle soul at heart turned protector of his brother’s idiocy, on a quest for democracy and civilisation. As these two rapscallion contract killers set out on the orders of the mysterious Commodore to track down a chemist with a secret formula, they will traipse their way through ambushes, the savagery of nature and the hypnotising lure of the gold rush.

Joaquin Phoenix (Her) and John C. Reilly (Stan & Olly) star as the eponymous brothers (or should that be sisters?) and though they are an unlikely paring, with Phoenix pulling out the comedic stops and Reilly drawing on an uncharacteristic sombreness, they each reveal a seldom seen side to their acting careers and form a virtuoso dynamic duo. If you had seen the casting list pre-production you’d be forgiven for having your doubts, but in the flesh they actually strike a surprisingly riveting double-act.

Through the hail of bullets and near-alcohol poisonings, a rather beautiful sibling rivalry emerges, one which most of us will immediately relate to (albeit minus the torturing and bounty hunting) that will touch you in ways you never thought either man could touch you. Jake Gyllenhaal and Riz Ahmed make their appearances in due course as detective John Morris and prospector Hermann Kermit Warm respectively, and whilst their exchanges are some of the most touching and gripping in the flick, the whole cameo-show aspect threatens to ruin the film. You’re left wondering if a handful of up-and-comers might have been better suited than a pair of celeb stars just so you can focus on the goddamn story.

The Sisters Brothers has the soul of a Sergio Leone western, even if the directing side-steps the usual hallmarks of the genre and instead of ‘The Man With No Name’ you end up with ‘Many Men With Various Different Cool-Sounding Names’, you are still treated to the fanfare of more double-crossing than a cold war thriller, enough blurring the lines of morality to make you question the prescription of your specs and catharsis by the pail-ful. It is also one of the most sensitive and heartfelt Westerns to have duelled for our attention in recent years, with smatterings of tenderness and philosophic musings that are as far from cack-handed as it’s possible to get.

The soundtrack is a raunchy, rambunctious and roaring affair, with a jollier tempo than we’re used to from the likes of the Coen bros’ True Grit, instead harkening back to the quirk and bubble of Enno Morricone’s scores from A Fist Full of Dollars et al, which is all the more welcome for the way it embraces this chaotic road-trip adventure for the good ol’ romp it is.

Somehow both the strength and weakness of this picture is that, adapted from Patrick deWitt’s best-selling novel, the script feels like an entire series was whittled down into a stand-alone feature with the world feeling so crammed with stories that the narrative virtually spills off the screen. The flip-side is that segments feel rushed, the tone and scene changes a little choppy and the ending leaves a strange, wistful taste whilst Rutger Hauer (Blade Runner)’s brief and silent appearance leaves you feeling confused and a little ripped off. It’s almost as if the film editor was brought in a week before the movie aired and told “fix this, would ya?”.

That said, you still get some serious bang for your buck in this epic odyssey with all the trimmings of backstabbing, caustic allegiances, secret agendas and nail-biting stand-offs stirred in with some truly endearing character studies – a stand-alone moment being John C. Reilly learning to use a toothbrush for the first time.

7/10