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Movie:		4.0
Picture:		7.0
Sound:		7.0
Extras:		6.0
Score:		5.0

Director(s):	Richard Wellings-Thomas
Writer(s):	Emily Corcoran
Starring:	Emily Corcoran • Graham McTavish • Isabelle Defaut • Nicholas Ball
Genre:	Comedy • Foreign
Website:	http://www.sisterhoodfilm.com/
Release Date:	June 09, 2009

List Price:	Blu-ray - $14.99
Amazon:

When I first watched the 2008 rendition of Mamma Mia (starring Meryl Streep, Pierce Brosnan, etc.) my mind was sent into immediate hiding when the film opened with incredibly loud female shrieks on a dock. The shrieks split sky and eardrum alike and instantly put my brain into a stupor – Sisterhood repeats the assault, but over and over again. However, unlike Mamma Mia, the screams in Sisterhood are meant to elicit laughter (not just migraines), because that’s the caliber of comedy it has to offer. The film may deserve some credit for performing admirably well considering it’s a barebones independent feature created on a shoestring budget, but there are some parts which just can’t be redeemed.

Years ago, Jack (Nicholas Ball) had a really good con going: he’d romance a woman, buy her a vacuum and then get her to sign away her possessions under the guise of the vacuum’s lifetime warranty form. Some twenty years later, two women, whose recently deceased mothers were both involved with Jack, set out to find him after he makes claim on their properties using the deeds he acquired via his con. Shirley (Emily Corcoran), a country bumpkin, leaves her farm in New Zealand to meet her half-sister whose location her mother disclosed to her before passing. And so it goes that the upper-crust Brit, Catherine (Isabelle Defaut) should come home one evening, with her adulterous beau (Graham McTavish) in tow, to find a crass, hairy-legged Kiwi crashing on her couch. With their blood-relation revealed, the two sisters set out to track down Jack and get him to release their properties back to them.

<>Sisterhood relies heavily on two types of comedy: screaming and sight gags. Catherine’s character, along with being an uptight prude, has no comedic moment that doesn’t involve screaming in shock, surprise or anger. Her eyes go wide, her voice pitches and the audience cringes. Why Emily Corcoran thought the screaming would be funny when she wrote Sisterhood, I have no idea, but it misses every time. Beyond the screaming, there is a series of comedic bits based on things like hairy-legs, costumed characters having sex and so forth. At least the visually comedic components come through once in a while, but in the long run Sisterhood needed to go back to the drawing board for a few more drafts before filming.

The cinematography of Sisterhood can distract from the story far too often. Using odd angles probably meant to be artsy, the style obstructs the view more often than it creates unique vantage points. When the basic filming of the feature has so many issues, it seems absurd to talk about the merits of putting it in high definition. The picture looks crystal clear, but resolution doesn’t fix content. Sisterhood counts as a decent first effort, but in future film endeavors I hope writer Emily Corcoran and director Richard Wellings-Thomas end up with a better final product.

Blu-ray Bonus Features

The disc comes with some featurettes whose inclusion will genuinely baffle the casual buyer. On the normal side, there’s an interview with Corcoran, Wellings-Thomas and producers Tim Hart and Abi Sirokh. Sisterhood will never earn a spot in any film hall of fame, but the process behind making an independent film will always fascinate. Hearing about all of the hang-ups, fundraising and production processes is an educational experience for any filmmaker looking to make a film for the first time. Less revealing is a series of interviews with various crew members which really tell us nothing about anything. The behind the scenes featurettes are a mixture of interesting and useless. Just as the interviews with the major personalities behind the film hold the audiences interest, the behind the scenes pieces have some merit – even being as short as they are.

There are a lot of independent Brit flicks floating around out there and you wouldn’t be hard-pressed to find one better than Sisterhood. However, considering it’s the first feature film for Emily Corcoran and crew, it’s a valiant effort.