Rating: 

The Info

Directed by: Garry Marshall
Written by: Alexandra Rose, Blair Richwood, Garry Marshall, Bob Brunner
Starring: Juliette Lewis, Diane Keaton, Tom Skerritt, Giovanni Ribisi, Hector Elizondo
Produced by: Mario Iscovich, Alexandra Rose, Karen Stirgwolt

The Nutshell

A slow young woman returns to her family after years in a special school to find a mother who doesn't understand her and a new boyfriend who is just like her.

The Review

    One of the easiest and popular ways for actors to earn Academy Award nominations is to portray a character with a disability. A quick glance at the list of Best Actor nominees from the last 6 shows that in some years, an astonishing 4 out of 5 nominated characters had disabilities. The Other Sister offers up two such performances, those of Juliette Lewis and Giovanni Ribisi, as Carla Tate and Daniel McMahon respectively. As with many such roles, the two actors do a good job and will undoubtedly get credit for them.

    The Other Sister is a typical feel-good film. It offers us likeable characters whom we can sympathize with, family crises, lots of tears, and a happy ending. The story is predictable and tame, the dialogue is unrealistic and witty, and the characters are all interesting in an obvious way. Films of this sub-genre such as Patch Adams or Stepmom tend to be much more popular with audiences than with critics. Patch Adams is a great example, making the very bottom of EW magazine's list of average movie ratings for 1998, yet pulling in over $100 million dollars at the box office thanks to good word of mouth. Similarly with Other Sister, audiences will doubtless like watching Juliette Lewis act "slow". People will discuss the wonderful job she does as Carla Tate, without ever wondering if it would have been a more powerful film had the director chosen someone with an actual disability for the role. In this respect, the filmmakers demonstrate a strong knowledge of the common filmgoer's likes and dislikes.

    Carla returns home after spending most of her life at a "special" school. She was sent there years earlier by her mother Elizabeth (Keaton), who was unable to handle raising her alone (dad Hadley was usually drunk). The Tates are a filthy rich family, and Elizabeth tries to wrap Carla into the family's usual activities, like tennis and attending charity events. Carla somehow keeps doing things wrong and Elizabeth wonders if she still can't be a proper mother. Hadley (Skerritt), now sobered up, offers his wife a steady shoulder to help her get through the ordeal.

    Carla meets Daniel McMahon in high school. They are naturally drawn to each other by their similar conditions (Daniel is slow as well). Their friendship ends up a romance, and they embark on trying to figure out sex. Their path together has numerous ups and downs, and in the end, everyone leaves the screen happy as a clam. Along the way, various friendly characters show up to brighten scenes with their goodness, such as Daniel's building manager Ernie (Elizondo) and the entire high school marching band.

    Everything about this film is predictable fluff. You know that Elizabeth will have several big attempted-Oscar-clip moments where she proclaims that she is a good mother to Carla. You know that Carla and Daniel will be together in the end. Director Garry Marshall takes no risks, following the safe-weeper-feelgood-film guidebook step by step. He adds many scenes which are there solely to make the audience cry. The musical score by Rachel Portman is tame and monotonous. The acting is overdone on average, with Diane Keaton especially going over the top to play the constantly on edge Elizabeth. Only Tom Skerritt displays a bit of restraint as Hadley. Lewis and Ribisi do their best to sound slow, displaying all the mannerisms that the average filmgoer expects to see.

    The Other Sister tries hard to be interesting. One of Carla's sisters is gay, leading to boring conversations about being accepted by her family, etc. It's as if the writers realized that the script was boring, and decided to spruce it up by giving the characters neat little quirks. Ernie is given cool clothes to wear and musical instruments to play, to add hipness to the film. None of it washes though, with implausibility after implausibility occurring to Carla. The trouble that Carla gets herself into is too cute to be taken seriously by anyone, and by the end credits, you feel robbed of a decent drama.

Copyright - Tim Chandler

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