Sisters - Criterion Collection Rating: Release Date: 03 October, 2000 Retail Price: $29.95 OUR Price: $26.99 You SAVE: $2.96! Cast: Margot Kidder Jennifer Salt Olympia Dukakis William Finley Complete Cast (8 total)

Sisters - Criterion Collection Reviews

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Brian de Palma got better, but a good start
I am quite an admirer of Brian De Palma, and was glad of this new DVD release to refresh my memory with one of his great early movies.
Actually, on revisiting the film, I realised there were a few things about it I didn't like, but I think this may be just down to it's age more than its execution. Plus, the fact that the central mystery was already as old as the hills when this movie came out tends to take some of the suspense away.

The story centres on Danielle, a troubled young French-Canadian model, well played by Margot Kidder who was originally one of two conjoined twins, and guess what, yes, Danielle is good while her twin sister Dominique is evil! The plot is actually pretty slight and mostly based upon shocking revelations rather than unfolding action. But it starts off in a cracking fashion by tricking viewers completely with it's TV game show opening...this and the lead up to the gruesome murder are the best parts of the film. De Palma shows his originality as soon as the murder by switching to split screen (ok not original, but not very mainstream to do it for this long, and quite dynamic), as the victim tries to attract attention from a neighbour, and then her subsequent investigation. Once this is all over, things stall slightly as the neighbour, unpopular press reporter Grace (Jennifer Salt, later to appear on TV in "Soap", as Eunice Tate!) decides to poke her nose into the murder and gets caught up in the very strange lives of Danielle and Dominique.

The problem I found on watching this film again is that the plot is actually very thin - once Grace uncovers the story behind the murder, the film is all but over, and the story seems to run short of surprises far too quickly. Grace's pursuit of the truth leads her to get caught and doped up by Danielle's sinister husband, which provides a trippy dream sequence that is another of one of the films standout moments, as is the ending, which throws in a twist for poor Grace that the film sets up much earlier, but I had forgotten about. But sadly, this boffo twist is itself trumped by a simple continuation of a much less interesting earlier plot thread that had me shouting "Come on - it's either all over, or it's not...make up your mind!" (Anyone who's seen it will hopefully know what I mean!).

But it's still fun. Margot Kidder makes an engaging Danielle with a delicious French accent, and Jennifer Salt, while at times a bit whiny, makes a good job as the bratty reporter, especially when she all but takes over the police search of Danielle's apartment. All the supporting roles are also very good, and the murder sequences are quite gruesome, especially for the time which was the early 1970's. The film owes a huge debt to "Rear Window" with countless scenes of people snooping through windows, but while De Palma often borrows other directors tricks, at least he always does it well.

There was no body because there was no murder
'Sisters' is a haunting and suspenseful early DePalma film. It is clearly an homage to Alfred Hitchcock, as others have stated, but there is also the unique stamp of a new and talented director on the scene. The dream/hypnosis scene is startling (Depalma has said that he was influenced by the dream scene in 'Rosemary's Baby). DePalma also seems to be interested in Freudian psychology (one of Hitchcock's preocupations) - there are a couple shots, in particular, that are clearly references to Freud.. This movie lingers in the mind long after it is over - very nice criterion edition too..

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