Eli and Charlie Sisters, an infamous duo of gunslinging assassins, chase a gold prospector and his unexpected ally in 1850s Oregon.Eli and Charlie Sisters, an infamous duo of gunslinging assassins, chase a gold prospector and his unexpected ally in 1850s Oregon.Eli and Charlie Sisters, an infamous duo of gunslinging assassins, chase a gold prospector and his unexpected ally in 1850s Oregon.
- Awards
- 13 wins & 22 nominations
- Blount Guy Dying
- (as Zack Abbott)
- Director
- Writers
- All cast & crew
- Production, box office & more at IMDbPro
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaFilmed in Romania, France and Spain. Despite the film's American setting, none of the footage was shot in the United States.
- GoofsAfter Charlie Sisters visits the claims office in San Francisco, he tells Eli that the men they are looking for are at Folsom Lake on the American River. Folsom Lake didn't exist until Folsom Dam was built on the South Fork of the American River in 1955.
- Quotes
John Morris: I left my family out of hatred and that my father was the person I despised most in this world. I despised everything about him. I sincerely thought I had been freed of all that until tonight. Listening to you, what do I realize? That most of the things that I thought I'd been doing these past years, freely the opinions that I thought I had of my own volition were in fact dictated by my hatred towards that man. I'm 35 years old and my life is like an empty cylinder.
- ConnectionsFeatured in WatchMojo: Another Top 10 Joaquin Phoenix Performances (2019)
It's a curious case of wrong place and wrong timing, as A Prophet director Jacques Audiard film is as assured as you'd expect from a type of a production that has genuine star power at its disposal and a relatively hefty 30 million plus budget, but the slow paced nature and quiet story at the heart of this Western tale is likely the reason why so many people forgot it even existed and why despite some genuinely noteworthy reviews, was lost amongst a raft of other prestige films in the awards season.
While changing things up in more ways than one, Sisters is a fairly straightforward adaptation of DeWitt's pitch black and violently tinged novel that focuses on John C. Reilly's kind-hearted Eli Sisters and Joaquin Phoenix's Charlie Sisters, two-hitman/enforcers for hire who are sent on a quest by a man known as the "commissioner" to find their colleague John Morris (played by Jake Gyllenhaal) and Riz Ahmed's mysterious chemist Hermann Kermit Warm, who has a debt owing to the commissioner.
It's a simplistic set-up and one that is even more bare-bones when you begin to realize that the film's main concern is to allow you to spend time with Eli and Charlie as the two long bound together brothers begin to face up to the changing nature of their lives.
This isn't a bad thing as Reilly and Phoenix make for great companions, with both performers sharing a believable and sometimes tense chemistry, with Reilly in particular awards worthy as Eli, a man that unlike Charlie, isn't as fond as killing and violence and is beginning to wonder about what a life outside of the business he is in may look like, but one that seems far away as a keeper of sorts of the drunken and depressive Charlie.
Despite this not being a bad thing, and with fans of both performers likely in for a treat when watching Audiard's film, is does make one wonder that with more of an inventive and higher-stakes plot with a more zippier pace, Sisters could've been a genuine breakout hit and elevated itself up to a higher place than a merely entertaining, yet sadly instantly forgettable ride.
With seemingly all the elements at its disposal, including a moody score from Alexandre Desplat and some picturesque surrounds captured courtesy of D.O.P Benoit Debie, this is a polished production with flashes of brilliance technically and performance wise but one that feels weighed down by simplistic plotting and a sense that there's a lot of time wasted on not of a lot of meaningful content, even if the films end coda is touching in its humanistic approach to its subjects.
Final Say -
For fans of DeWitt's book and for those followers of the main casts work, The Sisters Brothers will be a joy to behold but with meandering pacing and a persistent but non-rushed bare-bones plot, Audiard's film feels ever so slightly like a missed opportunity to turn this material into something truly special and undeniably memorable, not just a pleasant diversion.
3 ½ spiders out of 5
- eddie_baggins
- Jun 19, 2019
Details
- Release date
- Countries of origin
- Official sites
- Languages
- Also known as
- Les frères Sisters
- Filming locations
- Production companies
- See more company credits at IMDbPro
Box office
- Budget
- $38,000,000 (estimated)
- Gross US & Canada
- $3,143,056
- Opening weekend US & Canada
- $115,575
- Sep 23, 2018
- Gross worldwide
- $13,143,056
- Runtime2 hours 2 minutes
- Color
- Aspect ratio
- 2.39 : 1