The second film in my indie double feature was The Sisters Brothers. John C. Reilly and Joaquin Phoenix play Eli and Charlie Sisters, two bickering brothers who are ruthless paid assassins for the enigmatic Commodore (Rutger Hauer). They have a series of misadventures as they travel from Oregon City to San Francisco in pursuit of a mark (Riz Ahmed) who has teamed up with one of their former associates (Jake Gyllenhaal) but it ends up being a journey of redemption for the brothers. I have to admit that this film is very different from what I was expecting. It is a slow-burning character study, punctuated by incredibly brutal gun fights, with a somewhat anticlimactic resolution. It felt much longer than it really is and I struggled to understand the point of what was going on much of the time. Both Reilly and Phoenix give fantastic performances (although I feel like we've seen Phoenix play a charming psychopath many times before) that end up being very sympathetic and they have great on-screen chemistry, especially when they are bickering with each other. There are some beautiful visuals (it was filmed in Spain and Romania) with wide shots of mountains, plains, and rivers as the brothers travel through the Pacific Northwest. However, the performances and scenery do not really compensate for the ponderous pacing and meandering story. I recommend giving it a miss.
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