Your Sister's Sister Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		4.5
Video		4.0
Audio		4.0
Extras		3.0
Overall		4.0

Your Sister's Sister Blu-ray Movie Review

Who Are You? (I Really Want to Know)

Reviewed by Michael Reuben November 14, 2012

Writer-director Lynn Shelton considers Your Sister's Sister a romantic comedy, but the label may be misleading, because the film lacks all the attributes of a stereotypical "rom-com". The people aren't pretty (though one leading lady is a beautiful, Oscar-nominated actress and the other a beautiful rising star). The characters don't have great clothes, favorable lighting or perfect hair and make-up. They aren't blessed with glamorous jobs, fabulous apartments and rosy professional futures. The leading man doesn't even have a job. The sole romantic coupling is a drunken one-night stand between two people who don't belong together, which Shelton stages in real time (less than a minute) for a scene that rivals the sexual encounter in Noah Baumbach's Greenberg for sheer awkwardness.

And how, you may ask, is this supposed to be funny? As in her previous feature, Humpday, Shelton finds the humor in people tripping and falling emotionally. Usually they're people who are articulate and opinionated, and the reason they tumble is that they're so busy talking that they don't look where they're going. Then they have to pick themselves up and try not to look foolish—usually in plain view of other people. Shelton's is a comedy of exposure, embarrassment and discomfort, but without the clinical detachment that made Greenberg such a chilly viewing experience. Shelton regards her characters with warmth and understanding, even as she invites us to laugh at their mistakes, some of which are major.

Your Sister's Sister concerns two pairs of siblings, but one of the four never appears. Tom, the elder of two brothers, has died a year before the film takes place, of an unspecified cause. At a memorial gathering in Tom's honor, his younger brother, Jack (Mark Duplass), interrupts a reverential tribute by Tom's friend, Al (Mike Birbiglia), to describe a less attractive side of Tom that only Jack knew. Jack's best friend, Iris (Emily Blunt), who was once Tom's girlfriend, takes Jack aside for "an intervention". Recognizing that Jack still suffers from grief, and a lot more besides, Iris packs him off to her father's cabin in the country outside Seattle, where Jack is supposed to sit quietly and reflect on his life.

Unbeknownst to Iris, however, her half-sister, Hannah (Rosmarie DeWitt), has just fled to the cabin after ending a seven-year relationship. Once they get over the initial shock of their unexpected encounter, Jack and Hannah share their troubles with the directness that often occurs between people who have just met. They also drink too much tequila and end up in bed. (I am deliberately leaving out crucial plot points.) When Iris arrives unannounced the next morning to check on Jack, both her sister and her best friend are regretful and guilty and want to spare Iris any knowledge of their indiscretion.

The second act of Your Sister's Sister generates unexpected suspense out of conversations that, on the surface, appear to be unremarkable but are fraught with hidden meaning, because each of the three characters is trying to hide things from the others. At the same time, each of the three is observing the others, trying to gauge what they they do and don't know. In their conflicting efforts at emotional choreography, they repeatedly step on each other's toes, and Shelton builds the tension with the inevitability of three trains on a collision course. You know all the secrets will be revealed, at the worst possible moment, in the worst possible way—and it's a relief when it happens, like the pop of a good punchline. Still, the laughs in Your Sister's Sister are always tinged with sadness, because Blunt, DeWitt and Duplass deliver skilled performances (superbly balanced in post-production by Shelton and editor Nat Sanders) that slip under your skin and make these characters more than just comic buffoons. They become people you feel you know, who happen to be grappling with messy lives, which is a description that fits most of us.

Some viewers have found the third act of Your Sister's Sister to be more formulaic than the rest of the film, as if Shelton were trying to rein in her independent cinema instincts for a more conventional ending. But convention may be in the eyes of the beholder. Shelton does stage a grand scene that resembles the classic rom-com confrontation when a lead character, male or female, risks everything by hopelessly declaring his or her love, only to win acceptance to the shock of everyone on screen and no one in the audience. (Ever since Jerry Maguire, this has been known as "you had me at hello".) But did Shelton and her cast create such a scene or did they parody it? Their deft touch with such ambiguities is one of many elements that makes the film worth re-watching. Listen carefully to the dialogue, and it's clear that everyone involved—not just the actors and the writer-director, but the characters in the story—know the clichés of rom-com and are trying hard to avoid them. They only partially succeed. Clichés become clichés, because they contain a kernel of truth.

A traditional ending to a romantic comedy would have showcased the glorious Pacific Northwest scenery surrounding the sisters' family cabin to emphasize the new life on which the characters will now commence, but Shelton made a deliberate choice (as she notes in the commentary) to send Iris, Hannah and Jack back to Seattle, where we find them together again. Without giving anything away, watch how Shelton chooses to cut the final scene. Conventional? I don't think so.

Your Sister's Sister Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Your Sister's Sister was shot digitally by Benjamin Kasulke, who is Shelton's regular collaborator and also shot the recent Safety Not Guaranteed. According to IMDb, the camera was the Sony PMW-EX3, but I was not able to confirm this. From the description of the shoot on the "Filmmaker and Crew" commentary, it seems unlikely that the project enjoyed the advantage of one of the newer high-resolution digital cameras.

Still, the results on MPI's 1080p, AVC-encoded Blu-ray look remarkably good, except for an occasional distorted shot that suffers from either inadequate light or, possibly, misadjustment of the camera. (A long shot of the road approaching the "cabin" as Jack first travels there on his bike is a notable example.) Generally, though, the image is detailed, sharp and noise-free. Colors are realistically muted, which strikes the appropriate tone for both the Pacific Northwest and the characters' conflicted and often tentative emotions. Certain colors, like the red of Jack's bike, stand out, and of course the forest and lake area surrounding the cabin provide natural production value just by being there.

Black levels are appropriately set, which is essential for night sequences and key scenes in darkened rooms. The 92-minute film has been adequately accommodated on a BD-25. It no doubt helps that the principal extras are commentary tracks recorded in space-saving DD 2.0.

Your Sister's Sister Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

In an unusual arrangement, the composer of the film's soundtrack, Vinny Smith, was also the mixer and supervising sound editor. Smith's efforts are presented in DTS-HD MA 5.1, and the track is subtle and effective. On the "Filmmaker and Crew" commentary, Smith and Shelton indicate a shared preference for using sound to express inner states, and Smith is a film composer who likes to blur the distinction between music and effects. (A notable example occurs when Jack is surprised on the porch by the discovery of Hannah's presence.) Smith likes to bring in his score from the rear, as if it were a rush of feeling filling up one's head and crowding out other sensations. He uses this effect sparingly but effectively. The dialogue remains clear, which is no mean feat in some scenes, where Shelton allowed the actors to talk over one another, creating nightmarish challenges during editing, which she describes in the commentary.

Your Sister's Sister Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Commentary with Writer-Director Lynn Shelton and Actor Mark Duplass: In a commentary new to this release, Shelton and her male lead kid each other with the rapport of a director and star who have established their working relationship in two intimate films. They also provide detail about the development of the script, alternate approaches, different takes, and the challenges of the editing process. Although improvisation played a major part, Your Sister's Sister was not, as is commonly thought, a wholly improvised film. It began with a 70-page script, and each character had a richly developed back story to the point that, when Rosemarie DeWitt had to take over the part of Hannah at the last minute, she found an entire volume of material about the character.
  
  The improvisation on set had more to do with comic style. Duplass indicates that he would frequently play very big for laughs, but that Shelton always cut those takes (or portions of takes). Shelton says at one point that she could have created many different versions of the film from the available footage. It's clear, though, that the version that emerged from the editing room is the one she wanted.



• Filmmaker and Crew Commentary: In addition to Shelton, the convivial group assembled for this commentary is Jeremy Mackie (gaffer), Benjamin Kasulke (director of photography), Vinny Smith (composer) and John Lavin (production designer). The absence of any actors means that the crew is free to talk behind their backs, which they do—with utter irreverence for them personally (as one would speak about good friends) and complete respect for their talent and work ethic. Amidst the merriment and obvious pride in the finished product, there are informative observations about the technical challenges of working in confined spaces, of lighting under time pressures, of capturing sound in natural surroundings, and of minimalist sound design.



• Trailer (1080p; 1.78:1; 2:31): The trailer is cleverly designed to give just a few of the film's complications, but hold back most of them.



• Additional Trailers (1080p): At startup the disc plays trailers for Peace, Love & Misunderstanding, First Position, Sleepwalk with Me and Liberal Arts. These can be skipped with the chapter forward button and are not otherwise available once the disc loads.

Your Sister's Sister Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

One of the topics extensively discussed in the commentaries is how Your Sister's Sister was salvaged by Rosemarie DeWitt, who stepped in as Hannah at the last minute when scheduling conflicts forced Rachel Weisz to drop out. With neither time to prepare nor prior acquaintance, DeWitt and Emily Blunt nevertheless managed to create the on-screen appearance of a complex, multi-layered and lifelong sibling relationship. Your Sister's Sister is one of the best films in recent years to be built almost entirely from the close observation of such relationships, and if you're a viewer who can enjoy the suspense, intrigue and humor of finely rendered human interactions, then the film should be at the top of your list. Highly recommended.