Synopsis
Family relationships are rekindled and tested as three sets of siblings come together to deal with the parent in their lives.
Written and Directed by Jim Jarmusch
Starring Tom Waits, Adam Driver, Mayim Bialik, Charlotte Rampling, Cate Blanchett, Vicky Krieps, Indya Moore and Luka Sabbat.
Released in the UK on April 10th, 2026.
Review
Jim Jarmusch’s Father Mother Sister Brother is one of those films that somehow manages to be about absolutely nothing… while also feeling like it’s trying to say everything at once... Like being trapped in a very awkward family gathering where everyone keeps hinting at deep emotional truths, but nobody will actually say anything interesting out loud.
The film is split into three separate stories about siblings reconnecting around a parent... but it’s the kind of film that gives you very little outright, instead expecting you to piece things together through tiny moments, side glances, and all the stuff left unsaid. (We're back to that not saying anything interesting out loud bit again!) I spent most of the runtime becoming increasingly frustrated by how little substance there actually was underneath it all, and while I'm sure that the silence and ambiguity was meant to be profound, I just found it empty.
Normally I don’t mind films trusting the audience to fill in some blanks, but Father Mother Sister Brother leaves so many blanks that eventually it just starts feeling lazy. The characters speak in half-thoughts, the conversations drift around without really saying anything, and every scene feels desperate to be interpreted as deeper than it actually is.
Which is a shame, because the cast are genuinely excellent.
Father - Mayim Bialik and Adam Driver are a stroke of casting brilliance. Their dynamic in that endless opening car ride says more about siblings than any exposition ever could. You believe them immediately, the little irritations, the unspoken affection. Driver’s Jeff is naïve in that endearing, frustrating way only younger brothers can be; Bialik’s Emily has that practiced patience of someone who’s been parenting a sibling for too long. The father’s manipulation threads through the story... you think there’s a purpose to it, but when it ends, you’re not quite sure what it was. Again, maybe that’s the point. Maybe not.
Mother - Charlotte Rampling and Cate Blanchett. What a dream pairing! While both are predictably brilliant, the section strangely underuses them. Blanchett plays Timothea with delicate restraint, and Rampling glides through every frame with poise and melancholy. But their story feels muted. There’s a fascinating undercurrent of regret and pride, one daughter who never strays from the family script, and another who’s written her own messy version. But there never feels like an endpoint, rather a brief scene change and we'd expect to come back to them later.
Sister Brother – Though the lightest of the three, it’s the warmest relationship of them all (and the most emotionally functional), but by that point I was mostly checked out. You could, however, feel their history, their affection, their shared grief. That was a little wasted as more of a footnote. If the other stories are poems, this one’s more of a haiku... brief, gone too soon.
By the end, I wasn’t sure if I’d watched a movie or three short films that happened to share a mood board. Each section somehow felt shorter and less substantial than the last. A cast this good deserved something so much more.
There will absolutely be people who adore this. People who’ll call it meditative and subtle and beautifully human. But for me, it was a deeply frustrating experience. Intriguing? Yes. Thoughtful? Maybe. A very generous tag of "comedy"? Absolutely. (Don't get me wrong, there's humour, but "comedy" is a bit of a stretch.)
I didn't love it, but I can't stop thinking about it... sometimes that's a massive win for a film, but not here, not for me.
What you should do
I know there's an audience for this out there... mainly because the reviews would say I'm in a minority. But personally, I don't think this contemplation is something that needs to be... contemplated.
Movie thing you wish you could take home
I wouldn't mind the view from Tom Waits' back window.
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