Seven years ago New York Times reviewer Manohla Dargis grudgingly decided that Tina Fey and Amy Poehler had the potential to become “real funny women”, the sort who earn laughs “by keeping their...dignity (more or less) intact”.
Urgh! Who, in this day and age, wants to be dignified? Since 2008’s Baby Mama, the Saturday Night Live veterans have joined forces with a new breed of film-maker. Their second, big-screen collaboration is brazenly juvenile. Look away, Dargis, look away now.
Katie (Fey) and Maura Ellis (Poehler) are both immature. Though Katie has a teenage daughter, she herself acts like a crass pubescent: she has no house; she’s always quitting her jobs. Maura is technically competent, but ruled by her inner child (who’s clearly a girl scout).
The first half of the film, in which the siblings discover that their family home is being sold off, revels in Katie’s vices. The second half (which revolves around a wild party) sees Maura attempting to let her “freak flag fly”.
Director Jason Moore made Pitch Perfect and writer Paula Pell wrote “additional material” for Bridesmaids. I’m dying to say Sisters is on a par with those classics, but it isn’t. Not quite. The basic set-up is just too contrived and implausible (real people attend weddings and glee competitions; it would be pathological to invite tons of ex-school friends to run amok in your parents’ recently vacated home).
Still, the set pieces combine great performances with slyly clever writing. A highlight sees Katie and Maura trying on breast-exposing dresses for the bash (surveying her “under-teet”, Katie declares: “I think I’m getting away with it!”) The joke is that both characters wear the frocks back to front; they think they’re chalk and cheese, but are often just dumb and dumber. Another sequence, that made me snort out loud, involves anal agony and a relentless Beethoven air.
The whole cast get a chance to shine. Look out for Maya Rudolph (as Katie’s unexpectedly sensitive nemesis, Brinda), and Dianne Wiest (Katie and Maura’s mum). At one point, Mrs Ellis describes herself as being “c***ingly disappointed” in her offspring. It’s a feature of our times that middle-class parents can no longer assume their adult kids will be financially (let alone emotionally) independent. Wiest channels baby boomer rage: she burns like a flaming torch.
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Though the final bloopers section is misjudged, Sisters is, basically, hilarious. It doesn’t matter that Poehler and Fey aren’t 100 per cent engaged by movie-making. Watching them here is like seeing Beyoncé lip-synch America’s national anthem. You know something’s missing, but can’t help being overpowered by the talent and brio on display.
Cert 15, 118 mins
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