Two sisters prepare for their mother's death.
SISTERS is used with permission from Jessica Brunetto. Learn more at jessbrunetto.com.
Emily has been caring for her ailing mother for some time, taking on the difficult task on her own. It's not an easy life, and Emily has moved back into the family home, leaving her husband and strained marriage behind.
But when her estranged sister Andy arrives for a visit, long-simmering grievances and resentments come to the surface for Emily. Andy leads a full, busy life in Los Angeles as an aspiring actress, absorbed in her affairs, while Emily has put a lot of her own life on hold. But when Andy comes home, the sisters have it out.
Written and directed by Jess Brunetto, this short family dramedy accomplishes the remarkable trick of detailing two characters' arcs with acuity and depth -- no mean feat in a short format. But it does this by yoking their growth to the ebb and flow of their relationship, which is given life thanks to smart, emotionally sharp writing and great performances that balance sharp humor with heartfelt emotion.
Rendered in a subdued, slightly moody naturalistic style, the storytelling sets up each character quickly and precisely, with Emily as the put-upon primary caregiver and Andy as the striving, self-absorbed actress. But the pace ignites when the sisters come together, both bristling with tension. Yet the writing also weaves in moments of genuine sisterly togetherness, which allows us to see how they once were close. Even as adults, they still oscillate between coming together for support while jawing at one another over faults and irritations.
Mary Holland as Andy and Sarah Burns as Emily -- both well-established comedic character actors -- are terrific together, hitting the understated beats of passive aggression that often shield their messy, more vulnerable sides. But, being sisters, there's no way they can hide from one another. And when their truths come out, allowing them to share their troubles, they find a way back to one another, at long last.
There's an acidic endnote to the conclusion of SISTERS, keeping in line with its unvarnished, warts-and-all take on emotion. Recognizing how dark, difficult feelings often exist alongside humor allows the story to be real while neatly sidestepping sentimentality. The result is a funny, heartfelt yet acerbic portrait that is true to the burden of caregivers and the difficulties of infertility, made bearable when shared with a sister who is there for it all, no matter what.