Two sisters manage a lavish hotel in the middle of a swamp in 1987's Sister, Sister. To enjoy this movie, it may not be enough to turn off your brain because any part of your nervous system may detect the stupidity of this film. Stephen M. Katz delivers some good cinematography, though, and Jennifer Jason Leigh is good as always though she's basically playing a prettier variation on her Fast Times at Ridgemont High character.
She's the innocent virgin, Lucy, whose extremely sexy wet dream opens the film. A collapsing ceiling while she has sex with a faceless muscular man communicates how frightening orgasms are for her, the only interesting character development in the film.
Her elder sister, Charlotte (Judith Ivey), is overbearingly protective and keeps Lucy medicated with mysterious pills. She's afraid Lucy will lose her virginity to Etienne (Dennis Lipscomb), the handyman who apparently keeps the place running.
Nothing about this palace on the bayou makes any sense but I didn't mind that so much. I can accept a fantasy like that, like soaking in a warm bath with a dozen candles, as Lucy does at one point.
I'm less willing to believe that she'd do this, after spending some lush love-making scenes with Eric Stoltz, while she believes a killer is stalking the halls and/or the swamp.
The film's loaded with red herrings but when the twist comes to reveal the actual killer it relies on totally new, retconned information. The last fifteen minutes of the film, which should be the edge-of-your-seat portion, has about all he excitement of a Pepsi commercial. Jennifer Jason Leigh is really pretty in the film, though.
Sister Sister is somehow on The Criterion Channel.
No comments:
Post a Comment