YOUR SISTER'S SISTER

YOUR SISTER’S SISTER
Written and Directed by Lynn Shelton
Starring Emily Blunt, Rosemarie DeWitt and Mark Duplass


Jack: You’re out of the cage now, my friend. If you’re gonna fucking fly, you’re gonna start with a steak!

Have you ever been out to a lake? It’s peaceful, simple, and often so tranquil that you can just let your mind drift away into a rare state of relaxation. Heck, you might even learn a thing or two about yourself, if you’re open to it. This is the exact tone that independent film director, Lynn Shelton, strives for and achieves with great success in her latest insightful laugher, YOUR SISTER’S SISTER. Well, the simplicity, she gets; the tranquility, not so much. Either way, an engaging and endearing experience, much like a weekend away from the busier and louder mainstream fare we’re all accustomed to. In many ways, it is also a necessary break as well.

Reportedly made for just $125,000, YOUR SISTER’S SISTER was conceived as an improvisational experiment of sorts. Three people, all with varying degrees of issues with themselves and each other to work out, end up at a quaint cottage unexpectedly all at once. Two of these people are sisters, Iris and Hannah, played by Emily Blunt and Rosemarie Dewitt (who replaced Rachel Weisz when she had to drop out of the project). One of these people is Jack (Mark Duplass, who also rocks the indie scene in SAFETY NOT GUARANTEED). Jack lost his brother, who incidentally happened to be Iris’s ex-boyfriend, a year prior and has yet to reenter the world of the living. After Jack drunkenly sleeps with Hannah, who happens to be a lesbian just out of a 7-year relationship, it becomes as clear as a lake at dawn that matters have become fairly complicated for this trio.

YOUR SISTER’S SISTER is as contemplative and as rustic as you’d expect a movie about a trip to the lake to be. Shelton captures a candid intimacy that is increasingly rare these days. The video aesthetic may not always do the picturesque nature full justice but it also doesn’t let the actors get away with anything either. True to the essence of improv, these three actors cannot let there be silence for too long and inevitably fill the spaces with whatever comes to mind. Their combined talent is undeniable and without their finely honed instincts, this film would be the worst weekend away ever. And while the complexities that surface throughout their time away may be too easily worked out in the end, this does nothing to detract from what a fascinating exercise in introspection the time away provides.

THE FIVE-YEAR ENGAGEMENT

THE FIVE-YEAR ENGAGEMENT
Written by Jason Segel and Nicholas Stoller
Directed by Nicholas Stoller
Starring Jason Segel, Emily Blunt, Chris Pratt and Alison Brie


Susie Barnes: You know I don’t believe in kids and marriage and shit but when I see the two of you together, I get what the whole situation is about.

A comedy called THE FIVE-YEAR ENGAGEMENT promises a cute couple who will inevitably run into a number of obstacles on their way to the alter. You half expect disasters with the florist, catastrophes with the caterer and unexpected happenings to happen just in time to postpone the wedding a little while longer. Instead, what you get in the Nicholas Stoller (FORGETTING SARAH MARSHALL, GET HIM TO THE GREEK) version of this movie, is one where only one thing gets in the way of the titular engagement becoming a wedding - life. And this particular life is likely a lot more real than you would ever guess.

Tom and Violet (Jason Segel and Emily Blunt) are absolutely adorable with each other on screen. They met on New Year’s Eve at a costumed superhero party of sorts and then are engaged a year later on the same night. He is a promising sous-chef on the hot San Francisco restaurant scene and she is a bright academic, who is awaiting placement at a prominent San Francisco university to pursue her doctorate. They are the envy of their friends and family and why shouldn’t they be? They have the real deal, the kind of love that is increasingly only found in the movies. Segel and Blunt make you believe you can still find a love like this in real life even in today’s cynical times and this is partly thanks to all the real life garbage that these two get dealt that derails their wedding plans. Trouble with the seating arrangement is one thing; figuring out how to compromise in a relationship so that both parties are happy with their lives, now that’s a whole other trick to master.

The hard times Tom and Violet go through on their way to their wedding make THE FIVE-YEAR ENGAGEMENT a much more sombre comedy than one would expect. Still, when its funny, it is uproarious. It’s hard not to be with such an incredibly strong supporting cast, from Chris Pratt and Alison Brie, as the disastrous counter couple to Tom and Violet, who seem to get everything right without even trying, to recent Oscar nominee, Jacki Weaver, as the driest of future mother-in-law’s that there ever was. Director, Stoller, along with his writing partner, Segel, continue to prove that they can find great laughs in some of life’s more sobering experiences. And in doing so here, they prove how little significance a wedding truly has when weighed against the marriage itself.

SALMON FISHING IN THE YEMEN

SALMON FISHING IN THE YEMEN
Written by Simon Beaufoy
Directed by Lasse Hallstrom
Starring Ewan McGregor, Emily Blunt and Kristin Scott Thomas

The people behind SALMON FISHING IN THE YEMEN are fully aware of how ridiculous the title of their movie is. In fact, director Lasse Hallstrom capitalizes on just how ludicrous the entire concept of transplanting salmon fishing as a sport form Ireland to the Yemen truly is, by juxtaposing it against that other ever elusive impossibility we call love. Enter Ewan McGregor and Emily Blunt. He’s repressed; she’s passionate. Clearly, they have much to learn from each other. The whole international affair is a tad bit obvious at times in its intention but thanks to delightful turns by McGregor, Blunt and a hysterical Kristin Scott Thomas, this film is abundantly charming.

THE ADJUSTMENT BUREAU

Written and Directed by George Nolfi

Starring Matt Damon, Emily Blunt, Anthony Mackie, Jack Slattery and Terence Stamp

David Norris: If I'm not supposed to be with her, why do I feel this way?

If you knew that being with you meant that the person you love would never realize his or her dreams, would you walk away from them? If you wanted to, would you even be capable? As interesting a question as it is, it is the kind of question that hardly anything good can come from. If you want to stay, you’re selfish. If you want to go, then you don’t think love matters as much as success does. Regardless of your decision, you won’t be happy either way, but I suppose it got you thinking and that alone has its own value these days. Take that question and throw it into the central story of a movie though and you might have yourself with a pretty compelling drama. Or you might find yourself fully dismayed and just watching THE ADJUSTMENT BUREAU.

Matt Damon, whose film choices as of late have all fell flat for me, plays David Norris, the youngest Congressman in American history, in George Nolfi’s directorial debut. Nolfi and Damon last worked together on THE BOURNE ULTIMATUM, which Nolfi wrote and Damon starred in. Sadly, their relationship did not end there and, if I am meant to take anything away from their latest collaboration, it would be that it was obviously not meant to. The men who work at this particular bureau all wear snazzy hats and sharp suits but they might as well be wearing sparkly fairy dresses covered in pixie dust, given what their jobs are. These men, who may or may not in fact be angels, are making sure every day that the plan in place for every person on the planet is carried out properly. To do this, they must meddle with humanity as inconspicuously as possible. These are the guys who hide your keys in the morning or spill coffee on your clean shirt so that you leave the house five minutes later and either miss or catch the moment you were intended to. And see, I always thought that was the work of garden gnomes.

Damon meets Emily Blunt’s Elise in a bathroom. The seemingly chance encounter was not at all what it seemed and the two hit it off splendidly. Suddenly though, she must flee, and unlike Cinderella, she leaves neither her name nor her slipper behind. That was supposed to be the end of it, or at least according to the plan it was. The kiss they shared was too good to be forgotten though and neither can get the other out of their heads. The bureau simply cannot have this; it is not in the plan. And so the men in suits and hats do everything in their power to keep these two lovebirds apart. They point their fingers at peoples’ phones and messages appear or they flash a look in another direction and cabs go off duty. I half expected them to start wiggling their noses and disappearing in clouds of smoke at one point. They do all this to prevent Damon and Blunt from having a moment that might lead to a kiss, for a real kiss could alter their universes forever. As laughable and trivial as that sounds, it actually happens in the movie.

THE ADJUSTMENT BUREAU clearly wants to come off as cool but really only comes off as trying too hard. Nolfi’s direction is sorely uneven but with such a weak script, it could not have been easy to make the actors sound convincing. Granted, he wrote the script as well so blaming the writer is just more blame on him. Nolfi strives to get the viewer lost in the perilous divide between fate and chance, all the while trying to figure where free will fits in to the mix. All he does is pose the question though without drawing any actual conclusions. If we actually have free will, I suggest you exercise it and avoid this movie. If our fates are already decided though, I hope you, like me, were not just meant to suffer through this movie.