The Sisters Brothers ★★★☆☆ | Movie Review

Synopsis

The Sisters Brothers, notorious guns for hire, are set after a chemist who holds the secret to riches during the gold rush.

Review

Something slightly off topic first, I really think people need to consider how much time they spend dedicating time to production companies before the film. We had each company's own intro and then a collected one done in the film's opening sequence. This isn't the first time this year that I've been left impatiently tapping once the movie has started. I know everyone puts in hard work, but boring your audience before they've even seen a shot of your film is pushing it after we've sat through 25 minutes of ads and trailers.

The story is a simple one and yet had you asked me what it was about as I walked out I'd have paused and ummed briefly trying to work it out. The brothers work for a gentleman called The Commodore who has sent them after a scientist. This scientist has created a formula that makes finding gold easier, and The Commodore wants it. He's sent a tracker after him and the Sisters brothers are in pursuit to extract the information from him.

Obviously this task isn't an easy one as it's Oregon in 1851, they must travel by horse and set up camp wherever they can amongst the dangers of the wild. The sets really capture everything so well, from the dusty trails to the town, matched up with all the costumes, there's incredible detail everywhere you look.

I was very impressed by John C. Reilly's performance. He makes amazing transitions as a character and it's almost sad to see how he changes as the film progresses. He starts off optimistic, he's a dreamer, but the nature of what they do and the situations they find themselves it definitely hardens him. He gets one of the best things out of the movie, he gets the opportunity to have some moments of reality that you don't often see in movies. We get to see him using this new-fangled thing called a toothbrush and witness his joy at seeing a flushing toilet for the first time. I was genuinely pleased that they included these innocuous things from everyday life that we always joke about not happening in films, and Reilly makes them work so well.

Charlie Sisters was difficult to like, but then that's how it was supposed to be. He's on top, leading his brother Eli wherever he needs to without much thought to how it happens. By necessity he has to be dramatic and over the top, he's a drunk who doesn't like to be challenged and that means scenes where he creates chaos. Phoenix definitely brings that to the role, but I'm not sure he needed to bring quite so much.

Jake Gyllenhaal... I can't be the only one that thought "oh, they made him a gay cowboy again." I wasn't exactly sure how to take his character, his demeanour doesn't really sit right with much else in the movie apart from his interactions with Warm, played by Riz Ahmed. The pair do create a nice bond, they're very much the future, a step beyond the violent world they live in, but neither particularly hold much of your focus until the end.

I was getting similar feelings during this as I was in The Favourite, the film is generally well shot but there are moments that stand out as odd. A random artistic shot of the moon, a fade to black, and a summation at the end which while nicely done also seems to be completely different to everything else we've seen up to that point.

The film could easily have been shorter, and really needed to be. There are frivolous bits hanging around that don't add anything or end up going anywhere in the story. If we're going for changes to the movie, I also wouldn't mind a different ending. While long and quirky it still held interest and was leading to what was leading to a predictable ending. I applaud it for not taking that easier route out but that ending would have tied up some of the excess stories. What we ended up getting felt like a step back for the characters and it negated a lot of what we'd just seen in the rest of the film.

It's a bit of a mixed bag, with just a few tweaks I think this could have been an interesting modern addition to the western genre.

What you should do

If you like western style dramas then this will be worth catching when it comes to streaming services, I wouldn't saddle up and rush to the cinema for it.

Movie thing you wish you could take home

It would be hard to want anything from this film, I like my modern comforts too much, but the next time I happen across a stream, if I found a few chunks of gold I wouldn't be disappointed.