Review of The Sisters Brothers (2018) by Romethesecondti — 28 Jul 2019

Like most Westerns, “The Sisters Brothers” requires a willing suspension of disbelief; our heroes (or anti-heroes) too often miraculously survive hails of bullets rivaling the Great War’s Western Front. The film’s implication that Warm’s gold alchemy may actually work strains credulity while avoiding the recriminations and conflicts that would inevitably arise when the participants discover that their faith has been misplaced. And John Morris’s accent is, let’s say, a bit odd.

Like John Huston’s “The Treasure of the Sierra Madre” (1948), another mining film grounded in psychology, “The Sisters Brothers” is underlaid with issues of fathers and sons. All four protagonists struggle to distance themselves from difficult or abusive fathers, in one case leading to patricide, in another to the rejection of an inheritance. The Sisters Brothers” is a male film. It’s about brothers, about male bonding, about all-male mining and killing activities and, of course, about fathers and sons. The one woman who appears by name in the film is the detested boss of a newly-created town, as well as the madam of the whorehouse. She’s referred to only by her last name, “Mayfield,” is referenced with male pronouns by Charlie and Eli (“glad to meet the man of the house”), and is played by transgender actress Rebecca Root.

As in the two Westerns that were among the best films of 2015, Alejandro G. Iñárritu’s “The Revenant” and Quentin Tarantino’s “The Hateful Eight,” this film too readily taps into modern audiences’ desire for blood and gore.

These weaknesses aside, this is solid, even inspiring film-making. “The Sisters Brothers” is both a compelling adventure and a taut psychological drama. The acting is impressive throughout the ensemble, and Reilly’s sensitive, nuanced performance as Eli may be enough to elevate him into the current ranks of our best actors.