"I'm the mother of a dedicated underachiever, a gay workaholic and Carla," says Elizabeth Tate (Diane Keaton) as she and her husband Radley (Tom Skerritt) prepare for an afternoon on their boat.
Despite their wealth, life for the Tates has not always been smooth sailing.
Radley is a now-sober alcoholic, while Carla (Juliette Lewis), their youngest child, has just returned home after eight years at a "special school." She's decided she wants to further her education and get her own apartment, ideas that jolt her mother, who does her best to quickly squelch any talk of Carla leaving home again. Elizabeth would rather see Carla take origami and calligraphy classes.
The stage is set for a major throwdown, but if "The Other Sister" sounds like it might develop into a message movie about the rights of the mentally challenged, be forewarned that the film comes from director Garry Marshall ("Pretty Woman," "Frankie and Johnny"). In his world, street corner hookers look like Julia Roberts and the dumpy waitress in a greasy spoon turns out to be Michelle Pfeiffer.
So instead of frank talk about real issues, "Sister" stubbornly accentuates the positive, offering up gorgeous houses, chic San Francisco apartments, frighteningly green lawns and a sweeping pop soundtrack instead of any sort of insight into the problems a woman in Carla's situation might face. Even the story's major complication, a crisis involving Carla's new boyfriend Daniel(Giovanni Ribisi), feels wholly manufactured and unconvincing.
In the midst of all this artifice though, stands Keaton, who couldn't be synthetic even if she tried. Elizabeth says things like "it would behoove us to suppress the minutia," but Keaton undercuts the woman's high-handedness with a few quirks - reading magazines backwards, for instance - that bring surprising warmth to a character many actresses would have written off as simply another chilly mom.
Lewis and Ribisi are also fine, if a bit studied. Marshall regular Hector Elizondo makes a token appearance as Daniel's understanding landlord, and fans of 1960s TV may be amused to see Juliet Mills of "Nanny and the Professor" fame in the role of the Tates' trouble-shooting housekeeper.
Though slightly long at almost two anda half hours, "Sister" is pleasant enough and occasionally even tickles the funnybone. But there's no real heart to the story, no emotional core. Marshall has whipped up a glittery, lighter-than-air confection that sends you home feeling like you missed dinner.
James Sanford
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