Sisters
An Edward R. Pressman, Image Entertainment presentation of a No Remorse Pictures production, in association with Grosvenor Park Media, Insight Film Studios. Produced by Pressman, Alessandro Camon, Cathy Gesualdo. Executive producers, Kirk Shaw, Don Starr, Lee Solomon, Larry Fessenden, Stephan Belafonte. Co-producers, Suraj Gohill, Jon Katz.
Directed by Douglas Buck.
Screenplay, Buck, John Freitas, based on the motion picture "Sisters" directed by Brian De Palma, screenplay by De Palma, Louisa Rose.
Angelique/Annabelle - Lou Doillon
Dr. Lacan - Stephen Rea
Grace Collier - Chloe Sevigny
Dylan Wallace - Dallas Roberts
Larry Franklin - JR Bourne
Detective Kalen - Serge Houde
By JOHN ANDERSON
Siring a remake of a film that's as genetically linked to identity, duality and voyeurism as Brian De Palma's "Sisters" is its own twisted joke -- bloody sibling rivalry, anyone? Yet Douglas Buck has not only made a worthy partner to his predecessor's famously violentslasher thriller; he's outdone him in many ways. While Buck fans are sure to line up -- he has many among the horror ranks, thanks to 2004's "Family Portraits: A Trilogy of America" -- "Sisters" has as much mainstream potential as the weekly studio horror release, at least if quality and intelligence have anything to do with it.
From the opening image -- a swirling river that morphs into amniotic fluid, complete with fetus -- Buck is out to up the ante on De Palma, whose 1973 feature is now mostly a curiosity. Split-screen mayhem. Hitchcock-inspired suspense. The implicit acknowledgement, also a la Hitch, of moviegoers' peeping Tom-ism. All harbingers of De Palma's oeuvre-to-be, but in the case of "Sisters," a bit creaky at this point.
Although reverently faithful in some regards, Buck's version takes liberties that bring 'Sisters" into the immediate present and suggests possibilities for other radical remakes (how about a "Rear Window" done in virtual reality, or via cell phones?). When reporter Grace Collier (Chloe Sevigny) witnesses the central murder in Buck's film, she does so via computer screen, as helpless to stop it as if she were in a window across the street.
Later, at a picnic at a pediatric clinic, the gentle Dr. Dylan Wallace (Dallas Roberts) meets Annabelle Tristiana (Lou Doillon), who is helping Dr. Philip Lacan (Stephen Rea) perform a magic act. While Grace is being escorted away from the event -- she's been aggressively investigating the deaths of Lacan's patients -- Dylan and Angelique discover a mutual attraction, which will lead to sex, a birthday cake and murder most foul and corpuscular.
From the updated technology to the renamed characters -- Dr. Lacan, for instance, who evokes Jacques Lacan's Freudian theories, as well as the lineage of modern psychiatry through daughters -- Buck is reworking away. Doillon, a real revelation as both the French-Canadian Angelique and her sister, Annabelle, whose surname suggests not only the French for sadness (tristesse) but also the idea of threesomes -- the sisters and Lacan, the sisters and Dylan, the sisters and Grace.
Where Buck really separates himself from De Palma, however, is in the gravity of his movie: The original "Sisters" has an inkling of farce about it, especially today. The new pic doesn't take itself overly seriously, but its respect for its own genre is ennobling.
Edward R. Pressman, producer of the original, is on board here, which seems a considerable endorsement of Buck. John Campbell's cinematography mines the latent creepiness in the pic's locations, which isn't easy in a place as clean as Vancouver. There's also an intimacy to the look of the film that's consistent with the script and the acting, and gives the viewer a sense of having much more at stake in this tale of sisterhood and psychosis.
Composers Edward Dzubak and David Kristian would probably blush at being compared to Bernard Herrmann, but they have nothing to apologize for, either.
Camera (color), John Campbell; editor, Omar Daher; music, Edward Dzubak, David Kristian; production designer, Troy Hansen; art director, Michael Corrado; costume designer, Karen Munnis; makeup, Amanda McGowan; sound (Dolby Digital), Tad Nazar; visual effects coordinator, Ross Woo; visual effects, Jason Stritch, Richard Mintak; special effects coordinator, Brant McIlroy; stunt coordinator, Owen Walstrom; casting, Susan Shopmaker. Reviewed at Magno Review One, New York, Feb. 21, 2007. (In South by Southwest Film Festival.) Running time: 92 MIN.