Your Sister's Sister by MPI HOME VIDEO

Actors

• Emily Blunt
• Mark Duplass

Format

• Color
• Dolby
• NTSC
• Widescreen

Editorial Review

Director Lynn Shelton (Humpday) proves a worthy heir to the fresh, improvisational style of John Cassavetes in Your Sister's Sister, a charming, offbeat drama that feels like a true snapshot of the lives of real people. The cast is excellent, including Emily Blunt as Iris, a longtime good friend of Jack (the quirky and appealing Mark Duplass). The premise of Your Sister's Sister is simple: Iris insists that Jack go off to her family's cabin on a picturesque island in Puget Sound, Washington, to recuperate from his grief over the death of his brother (Iris's boyfriend). Unexpectedly, Iris's sister, Hannah (the touching Rosemarie DeWitt of United States of Tara and Rachel Getting Married), arrives at the cabin with a broken heart of her own. The final touch is Iris's surprise visit the next morning–so that the three characters, all bruised in their own ways, seek solace yet unintentionally crash even harder into each other in the process. Shelton's direction is deft and light, perfectly suited to this kind of character study. All three characters are thoroughly relatable, if not always completely likable. Their chemistry suggests true relationships of many years–a testament to the actors' talents as well as to Shelton's direction. Shelton has been called an “indie darling” for her intimate filmmaking style, but the truth is, she is an honest, captivating director whose work has more impact than most blockbusters with several times her films' budgets. And that is a treat, rare or not, for film lovers. —A.T. Hurley