Directed by: Jason Moore
Starring: Tina Fey, Amy Poehler, James Brolin, Dianne Wiest, Ike Barinholtz, Maya Rudolph, John Leguizamo, John Cena
Sisters plants the seeds of its own criticism during a scene in which sisters Kate (Fey) and Maura (Poehler) describe an old high school friend as "always on". I think that is the problem with this movie. Its stars are always "on". Tina Fey and Amy Poehler have received a hefty amount of critical praise for their Saturday Night Live and Golden Globe hosting performances. Fey especially for her dead-on impression of Sarah Palin, while Poehler didn't do so bad herself on Parks and Recreation. Maybe all of this praise has gone to their heads. Fey and Poehler approach Sisters seemingly believing that anything they do or say is funny because it is them saying or doing it. Comedies have mined all of the available humor that slapstick, bodily fluids, and bodily functions has to offer. No matter who is in front of the camera, funny material is needed. There are two genuine laughs in Sisters and neither Fey nor Poehler are responsible for them.
There was once upon a time when someone impaling his rectum on a music box or floors collapsing might have been funny. That time has long passed. I don't want to sound like I have a giant music box (or stick) up my ass, but I am weary of this humor that appeals to the lowest common denominator. Sisters covers the same ground as many movies about a party spinning out of control. I think of Animal House (1978), which remains the superior party animal comedy. Why? As I reflect on it, the party scenes were funny because the humor came from the personalities and nature of the people attending it. Guys like Bluto, Otter, and D-Day weren't just performing stunts for the sake of performing them. They were extensions of their wacky personalities. Animal House also knew when to pick its spots. It didn't hurl verbal and physical humor at you at a relentless pace. It took time to slow down and rev up for the next big laugh. It allowed its characters to be characters. There was actually a subtlety in the midst of the lunacy.
Sisters is about as subtle as a sledgehammer to the temple. Just to give a little background, Kate and Maura are sisters who are flabbergasted to learn that their parents have sold their childhood home. They fly to their hometown of Orlando and plan one last major bash before the house is sold to a snooty couple. This isn't a party like normal people would throw. This is clearly a movie party, where the supplies needed to pull off all of the sight gags would cost thousands of dollars. Since Kate is an out-of-work aesthetician and Maura is a nurse, I can not imagine how they could afford the seemingly endless amounts of food, booze, and drugs needed to keep about one hundred people acting like raving lunatics for hours on end.
So what transpires at this bash that takes up nearly an hour of screen time? The question is more like, what doesn't happen? We are assaulted with sight gags and verbal volleys until we are more ready to pass out than the partygoers should be. There is not one laugh generated from any of this. I am not looking for any deep meaning, but some laughs certainly wouldn't hurt. The house is turned into a war zone with men and women in their mid-40's acting like destructive teenagers. Well, movie teenagers anyway. With the amount of drugs and drink ingested and the physicality of some of the stunts they had to pull off, it is amazing many of them didn't have to be carted off in ambulances. I began to fear for their health and safety. The Delta House parties never got this crazy.
In the middle of all of this is Fey and Poehler, expending so much effort to drag laughs from the viewer. They try so hard and they really should not try so much. Less is usually more in comedies. Fey and Poehler act as joke machines, churning out one joke after another. I kept waiting for them to take a breath. The two funny moments in the movie come from John Cena, the WWE superstar who plays a muscular, silent drug dealer in the middle of the chaos. When he has something to say, we listen, because he doesn't say much. He is the polar opposite of Fey and Poehler.
When asked if he has kids, Cena responds, "I'm sure I do." While taking up Fey on her offer to have a wild time, Cena says, "My safe word is 'keep going'." The lines are funny, but made funnier because Cena doesn't reach for effect. He had some of the very few laughs in Trainwreck also. He may have a future as a screen comedian. Fey and Poehler could take cues from him. I have seen Fey and Poehler in interviews and in other work in which they displayed their intelligence and sense of humor. In Sisters, they try mightily to be funny instead of letting it come naturally. It has been said that comedy is hard. But it shouldn't be this hard.
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