Review: The Sisters Brothers

In a previous time, a new Western was getting released almost every week. Nowadays, you do well to see one or two get released in a year.

We did get Netflix original The Ballad Of Buster Scruggs released a few months ago. Now we have one that is based on a true story.

The title alone certainly made me intrigued as to why it was called that. But you soon find out early on as to why, and then you get straight into a fairly entertaining story. It opens up well with strong comradery from our two leads Joaquin Phoenix and John C. Reilly. You instantly believe that their siblings and have a rivalry that we can all relate to. The added aspects of gorgeous landscapes and authentic production and costume designs certainly set everything up nicely.
The second half did over-complicate the story at times. But on the whole I still found it to be a captivating one that certainly had me thinking how people around that time live and thought about how to make landmarks in the progress of mankind.

Phoenix and Reilly were really good together and certainly carried the film as the titular characters. Phoenix's commitment to his work continues to show and Reilly always surprises me well with his dramatic roles, and people know him more his work in comedies.
Other notable mentions were Jake Gyllenhaal and Riz Ahmed. I always like Gyllenhaal and the choices he makes in the projects that he is part of. But while he did a solid job with this, he had a questionable accent that felt extremely inconsistent. As for Ahmed, it was great seeing him reunite with Gyllenhaal after their efforts in Nightcrawler and he is continuing to show what a fine talent he is.

The big positives as mentioned was the look and authenticity. You could really feel the vastness of the land our characters were travelling and also the harshness of it. Even when the story moved into the towns, you could feel the muddy ground, wooden buildings and smell of whisky being drunk in the taverns.

However as mentioned before, the unnecessary complex telling of the main story of the second half sort of halted the momentum and enjoyment and made it the films most notable drawback. It was still entertaining, but not as engaging as the first half and that somewhat downgraded it to an extent.

In the end, I felt this to be a pretty good Western. I loved the look of it, the chemistry between Phoenix and Reilly was great from start to finish and it moved along rather nicely.
But the over-complications of the story I think made me lose investment with the overall film. That and the inconsistent accent by Jake Gyllenhaal was really off-putting and took me out of the film at times.
But on the whole, I felt pretty entertained and it certainly made me want to know more about the Sisters brothers. They certainly seemed to almost be like the Krays of the Wild West in terms of their characteristics.

If that comparison sounds intriguing, then I think you won't be disappointed.

Rating: 7/10