"The Sister's Brothers" is the perfect example on how a so called "Western" can be more than its Genre. Made by French director, the talented Jacques Audiard who already gave us gems like the 2009 "un prophète" or the 2012 "de rouille et d'os", "the Sister's brothers" tells a story of violence and greed but also of freedom and vast spaces, proposing a definition of what the American Dream could also be. Based on Patrick DeWitt's novel, this movie revolves around two henchmen and brothers, Charlie Sisters (Joaquin Phoenix) and Eli Sisters (John C. Reilly) who are chasing down across one thousand miles of 1850s Oregon desert to San Francisco, California the gold prospector and idealist Hermann Kermit Warm (Riz Ahmed) and his partner to be, John Morris (Jake Gyllenhaal). The film works as an initiatory journey where the two brothers will be confronted to their violent past, their meaningless present and eventually a choice for another feasible and peaceful future. All protagonists wish to fill their life with sense, transitioning from an absurd condition to a meaningful one. Hermann Kermit Warm is pursuing his dream to build a peaceful community, understanding that gold is only a means to an end. John Morris his willing to accompany Warm in his utopian quest, understanding that what matters is the journey and not the last station. As per our brothers they are looking for redemption and peace, one think he can find those in a bottle of whisky the other think he can fool himself in a virtual relationship with a stole. But eventually both understand that what matters is what we do. It's not our blood that conditions who we are but our actions that shape our present and future.
Serve by outstanding actors delivering "frugal" but true lines of dialog and a terrific cinematography where gun flashes in the dark are an allegory of the Wild West, "The Sister's brothers" is more than a Western, it's a film about freedom and redemption, the roots of the American Dream.
Review of The Sisters Brothers
