The
Sisters
(2005)
03 Oct 2012
Richard Alfieri’s 2005 film adaptation of
Anton Chekov’s The Sisters, by the
same name, is both brilliant and disturbing.
As is usual, I tend to miss the point extolled by the jacket
commentator: “… the story of familial deception and ultimate revelation … [and] the
ties that bind them despite their dysfunctional family dynamics…”
What
I am missing is the sense of family dynamic – in fact, to my reading of the
film, the action is defined specifically by the lack of family dynamic. There is no family.
The issue of the male child in the family
is removed from consideration by the omission of the female matriarch – the
mother died long before the story’s narrative begins – with no exploration but
the minimal side references of bitterness, Marcia redirects from hostility she
feels towards her mother, onto her father.
The makes even more intriguing the repressed sexual anger and tension
between her and her father. Clearly, her
husband is nothing more or less than a surrogate father figure – of this the
narrative is quite clear.
What we are left with is the incidental
relationship amongst four grown women (for this, the character of Nancy (Elizabeth
Banks), is of larger impact than that of Andrew, the brother (Alessandro Nivola). Leaving the cast of relevant characters as
Marcia Prior Glass (Maria Bello), Olga Prior (Mary Stuart Masterson), and the
youngest sister, Irene Prior (Erika Christensen).
To my mind, there are two themes – and I
think it important to reiterate that this play reflects the perspectives of two
men – Alfieri, the writer, and Chekov, the originator, and to a lesser extent,
director Arthur Seidelman, another male, and to explore the following with that
clearly in mind.
