User Reviews

Sandra Anderson (Abigail Breslin) has her older sister Beth (Georgie Henley) as her best friend. Their alcoholic partying mother Linda (Mira Sorvino) moves the family once again into another lower class neighborhood. Linda loses her job and can't keep her sobriety. Her mother's boyfriend is abusive. Nobody is willing or able to help. So the sisters and their friends plan to kill the mother for the insurance money. It's loosely based on a true story in Toronto.

It's an amateurish attempt from producer turn director Stanley M. Brooks. The girls are reasonable but it doesn't rise any higher than a TV melodrama. The story gets a little bit interesting as the kids plan the murder. The dialog is pretty bland bordering on awkward with some weak narration from Breslin at the start. Another problem is the lack of interesting style from the movie. Obviously they're using Breslin's star power to sell this but she can't save this project.

The Canadian version of 'Heavenly Creatures'. The director admits he inspired by the Peter Jackson's movie. But you must know that this film was also based on the real sisters who were fed up with their irresponsible and alcoholic mother and her abusive boyfriend. So they plot to set free themselves from the messed up life as they think they deserve better.

It was supposed to be a television movie, but later it saw a limited theatrical release and a mixed response from all quarters. I liked the film, for its strong content, but the weakness lies in the first half. The beginning was a very poor quality of presentation, the next half was the reason I favoured it where it erupts while the narration nearing the conclusion.

Since no one knows the details about the real sisters, the characters were altered in the movie as the cast desired to attack few things to complete it. Both, Abigail Breslin and Georgie Henley were not bad, but it's hard to believe these child actors are all grown up. In a few years, they will be in the lead! Anyway, this film is worth a watch, especially true stories like this fascinates me. We could learn about our world and its society, what other people went through in their lives and the reason behind those stuffs.

7/10

I was looking for some gripping, even chilling story about dysfunctional teenagers. Like what we saw in "Thirteen", which was a great movie, but now with a - true - crime story. Nah.

The director has been a producer for over 30 years and got some famous people to act in it. The actresses (the three of them) are really good. However, the direction takes a completely wrong turn, trying to make it a "dark teen fantasy-comedy-thriller-drama" salad. For instance, you start to wonder how two young girl plan the murders and... you have four teenagers enacting fantasies about murder. That's so not the thing this film should portray.

All the intentions to connect with teenagers were completely flawed. Bad soundtrack, TERRIBLE montage effects, ludicrous mixture of genres, awful cinematography work. It's like parents using slang. All the attempts to highlight the medium -- divided screen, special lights, accelerated camera -- are pathetic and would not even work in an MTV show in 1997. It's not a film for teenagers -- and if it was supposed to be, it didn't work either.

There are scenes that people's faces are covered by SOMEONE'S HEAD -- and not intentionally! Unbelievable. If you are a director making a debut, be humble and let a competent cinematographer AND editor do their jobs. How beautiful this film would

On the top of that, a voice-over starts giving ANOTHER angle on the film -- those films about bitchy teenagers obsessed with fame, kind of like To Die For from Gus Van Sant -- only to forget about it minutes later and never coming back to that.

Anyways. I was interested in the story, and through all the amateur work I could grasp something from it. The two girls are great actresses, and Mira Sorvino portrays precisely the thin line between a likable weak person and a wreck that screws up their children.

Somewhere I heard this: some people don't have to work their way into the center of the stage. They can pull strings and buy themselves into it. Question is: are they ready for it?

This is based on a true story and on real life people. That might raise some red flags with some. But if you don't mind that, there is quite the drama unfolding. Not easy to watch at all, but really good performances. Also not really characters in this one that you should be able to identify with much (at least not if you are stable generally speaking).

Having said, there are some horrific things happening (if you've read what it's about you already know what I'm hinting at, if not I won't tell/spoil) ... so not for the faint hearted or easily offended. But life can be hard and we are not all the same. While I would not condone many of the things happening, the structure of the movie makes it easy to understand how everything build up ...

I had such high hopes for this movie. I love Abigail Breslin so I figured this movie would be good. It was definitely NOT good but it wasn't necessarily the worst movie ever. The acting wasn't very good at all. So overly dramatic. Im not sure if it was the actress though since she is actually very talented. Maybe a bad director? The other actress was just plain bad. I don't even remember her name. I believe she was the little girl from Narnia but I'm not sure. I really liked the plot I just couldn't get pass the horrible acting. I'm giving this movie 4 stars because even though the acting was awful (except for the actress who played the mother she was excellent!) I really liked the storyline. The movie didn't feel dragged out or rushed. It was put together nicely. It's worth at least one watch. Don't think I'll ever watch it again.

If it wasn't based on true events this could be a pure rip-off of Heavenly Creatures (1994) another flick based on true events.

Here we have two sisters fed up with their mother being drunk whole the time and bringing in the wrong guys only to have sex before the eyes of their daughters due being drunk, always having abusive relationships . Slowly the sisters and their friends are making a simple plan to kill her. Doing so they almost got away with it wasn't it for the fact that one of the sisters starts to tell everybody she killed her mother.

Like in Heavenly Creatures we also have dream sequences so comparing both flicks is easy. But Perfect Sisters shows that it clearly was a TV flick where as Heavenly Creatures was more brutal and performances were better.

It isn't all that bad and I watched it with my teen daughter (15 just as the sisters aged 14 and 15) who never turned her face away by which I mean, there's no horror in it or even any creepy moments. Even when they are killing the mother it's all done without terror.

Due being based on a true story it's worth picking up just to see how people can influence each other when they are weak. Not a perfect flick but indeed perfect sisters...

Gore 0/5 Nudity 0/5 Effects 0/5 Story 3/5 Comedy 0/5

The trailer made it look so interesting. But I was tad bit disappointed.

The beginning was pretty amateur and confusing; it was the middle and the end of the movie where it really begins to get good.

What really got me though was that at the end of the movie I had to remind myself that this was based off a true story, which is absolutely insane.

Out of the portrayals of the sisters, Georgie Henley (although I did notice her accent at some times during the film) saved this movie. I don't even understand why Abigail Breslin is an actress.

I recommend you watch this if you're really bored and looking for a thriller to pass the time.

Missed this title when released, but glad I found it.

Abigail Breslin was always a favorite child ctress of mine, and this performance shows that she has progressed to a very dynamic adullt actress.

Two teenage girls (Abigail Breslin and Georgie Henley), frustrated and at their wit's end over their mother's (Mia Sorvino) alcoholism, concoct a plan to murder the matriarchal drunkard because.....teenagers.

To call this movie amateurish is an understatement, and about the closest thing to a compliment that I could ever hope to give to this film. There is no steady progression, and characters just leap to conclusions that no human being ever could. How a child jumps from sympathetic towards their mother to murderous in the time frame they did is insulting. The teenage airheads surrounding the leads do nothing more than justify the stupidity of the leads. Their indifference towards their friends' diabolical plans would be sickening, if they had even the shakiest grasp on the craft of acting.

And as if the supporting casts' acting abilities aren't bad enough, this movie actually manages to squeeze cringe-inducing performances out of the leads as well. Mia Sorvino is particularly painful to watch, as the only believable emotion she portrays is drunk. It's like watching your good friend fumble their way through a karaoke song while strongly intoxicated. The resulting effect is embarrassing and uncomfortable. Breslin and Henley are just as bad, with performances rife with tearless crying, no discernible moral compass (They are neither sympathetic, nor sociopathic as they zig-zag back and forth) and the exact same shortcomings as their supporting counterparts. James Russo stars as the mother's abusive Lawyer (This guy's a Lawyer?!?!?!) boyfriend, who makes sexual advances on Henley's character. Maybe with a better director, this character could have been menacing. But with a script as hackneyed as this, he comes off as too buffoonish to be truly intimidating. Any other roles are played like stock characters from a lifetime movie of the week.

Production-wise, the movie also suffers from stilted, unimpressive cinematography and some truly horrendous editing. An opening sequence shows the girls in a flashback as toddlers, spending a day at the beach with their mother superimposed over (What I would assume is) the beach in current times. The effects used to make this sequence look like something you would use in one of those booths at the mall that allow you to make your own music video.

The experience of watching this "film" is a grating and jarring one. The film was shot in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. As I'm sure you can tell by the title of this review, I'm seriously considering relocating.

Inspired by a real case. it is the basic support for a film who has potential to be interesting but remains expression of good intentions. because Mena Suvari is reduced in the cage of cliches. because the universe of teenagers is just a sketch. because it could be a real good drama but the director has not the courage to explore in deep sense the Andersen sisters drama. something missing. this is the word after its end.

Where do I begin with this mess? I read in the trivia section that halfway through filming they changed this from a TV movie into a theatrical release. I can't imagine why. Even for a TV movie it would have to be considered pretty average. First of all the narration by Abigail Breslin's character is incredibly annoying and adds nothing to the atmosphere or story. All of her lines are clichéd nonsense. The acting by every cast member is very bad and makes it very difficult to do anything other than cringe every time they try and show some emotion. The complete lack of chemistry between the sisters is off putting and also makes it hard to buy into the whole thing.

The script is equally bad. It jumps all over the place from scenes you'd expect to see in 'Gilmore Girls' through to some very heavy scenes (which are handled very badly). There is no flow between the two, they simply jump from one extreme to the next. Nothing makes sense, the girls are supposedly very smart with excellent grades and have learnt four languages (one of which they created themselves) and yet throughout the movie they do some of the most incredibly stupid things you could possibly imagine.

It's very common knowledge that Peter Jackson's 'Heavenly Creatures' set the standard for this type of film back in 1994. His film was brilliantly crafted with an exquisite atmosphere and a script that flowed wonderfully. Now here we are 20 years later with 'Perfect Sisters' and you're telling me we've gone this far backwards? Very disappointing.

It's a Weak attempt from producer turn director Stanley M. Brooks in directorial debut. He tries to make black comedy instead he made "Dark teen fantasy- comedy-thriller-drama" salad. The script is equally bad with some weak narration from Breslin at the start. It jumps all over the place from scenes you'd expect to see in 'Gilmore Girls' through to some very heavy scenes (which are handled very badly). The transition of their emotions from fear to anxiety to giddiness had no natural flow. Not even for a crazy person. Nothing makes sense, the girls are supposedly very smart with excellent grades and have learned four languages (one of which they created themselves) and yet throughout the movie they do some of the most incredibly stupid things you could possibly imagine.

What really got me though was that at the end of the movie I had to remind myself that this was based on a true story, which is absolutely insane.it pretty much takes a sociopath to murder their own mother. It was always about money and buying the things they wanted. Plain and simple. The fact that they are making this movie really ticks me off. The moral being? What? That after being caught you can spend four short years in juvi and then get on with your life while your mother no longer can? Sheesh.

I found this movie quite boring, taking a long time to develop. Stagnant characters, an unbelievable plot (even though it is based upon an actual real crime). I left it on in the background, looking up every few minutes while I was doing other things. Not horrible, I just think this could have been a much better film, considering the story.

That fact that it was based on a real life story was a bit creepy.

The story kept me intrigued.

The problem was the bad acting by everyone involved. The 2 sisters especially were just horrible. and if they had hired real actors this had the potential to be a 7 or higher

6.1

Great true story topic. A cast with experience but you'd never know it watching this...reminds me of a high school project. This could possibly ruin these girls careers. Just horrible from start to finish.... can't believe it...poor directing I don't know...a good actor/tress should still be good with poor direction. Sad to see coverage of this story so bad. Waste of time.