The Sisters Brothers (2018)

It might be that the clever title and the fact that this is backed by an whole host of European film funds is all that makes this rather sterile Western memorable. It's all about the enigmatic "Commodore" (Rutger Hauer) employing the eponymous brothers - "Eli" (John C. Reilly) and "Charlie" (Joaquin Phoenix) to track down the mild-mannered prospector "Kermit Warm" (a rather mis-cast Riz Ahmed) whom he accuses of theft. This isn't the first time he has engaged them, and both are suspicious of the activities of their boss - but he pays well and they quite enjoy their jobs. Whatever the man stole is important enough for "Morris" (Jake Gyllenhaal) to also be employed and it's him who finds their target travelling to San Francisco. He makes all the overtures of friendship, but we quickly learn that he is in cahoots with the "Sisters". Why, though? What did he steal to cause so much effort to retrieve him. Well as that question is answered, might we see a re-alignment of the attitudes of his pursuers? It's billed as a dark comedy, but I can't say I found much humorous in it. Nor did I find much of a rapport between Reilly and an understated Phoenix as the contrived story seemed designed to meander rather than impact. There are a few decent shoot 'em up scenes and it does show just how tough the whole pioneering and prospecting wild west was, but this story seems to be trying to be a little more thoughtful rather than action-packed and for me it fell between two stools. Maybe it would have been better had it lost twenty minutes to tighten it up a bit and lose some of the seemingness endless dialogue that added little to the narrative. Disappointing.

I was looking forward to this. It has two of my favorite actors in it. Unfortunately, I had to give up on watching it. It's impossible to see what's going on. There are some shadows moving about, sometimes covering each other. A dot lights up occasionally on my 55-inch OLED. I can see subtitles, hear the sound. This is apparently one of those "someone invented HDR, that means we should put a cloth over the lens" kind of movies. Such a shame.