_The Sisters Brothers_ is like a French barbecue: it tries to be authentic but gets lost in all the style.

Classic Westerns are classic because they are simple stories based on basic archetypes: good, evil, love, hate, greed, revenge... They are, essentially, retellings of Greek myths in cowboy days. And it's still possible to tap into this story-driven ethos as illustrated by films like _Young Guns_, _Hell or High Water_, or my personal favourite, _Bone Tomahawk_.

But there's another school of filmmaking bent on making sweeping, character-driven epics that typically end up as little more than rambling tales of which one can make neither head nor tails. Which is fine for the character but bad for the horse he's driving, because the horse usually winds up lost.

_The Sisters Brothers_ is a beautiful film (with special mention to the wonderful score by Alexandre Desplat (_The Tree of Life_, _The Shape of Water_, _Isle of Dogs_...)) containing wonderful vistas and better than average performances, but the story line that insists on running out for two full hours stretches itself thin.

Slathering barbecue sauce on duck à l'orange doesn't make it Tex-Mex.

Another Western?  Noooooooo, it isn't.  Like most good movies with a Western backdrop the key to the film is a good story.  That's one of the reasons that I've often thought Westerns are an excellent genre - the writer is not encumbered by needing to explain job, marriage, kids, etc.  We can just get right to story.  Fun fact - The story in The Good, The Bad and The Ugly was borrowed from a ninja movie.  A good story is a good story regardless of genre.

First and foremost, the acting is tremendous.  Phoenix and Jake Gyllenhaal offer up stellar performances but the real heart of this movie comes from John C. Reilly and Riz Ahmed (who was excellent in The Night Of).   From beginning to end this just has a very unique feel to it that I couldn't put my hand on.  The final five minutes made me realize what that feeling was (I won't say here).  The message of the film wasn't about the old west or anything like that.  To borrow from the Grinch:  it was something much more.

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Far better than expected... The comedy takes a back seat to great acting... My ol'lady killed me, after John C Reilly got bit and swole up, she said look! It's Amy Schumer bahahaha

Waste of good actors for a french western.

Excellent. I'm a sucker for following misfits round the West, along with all the mischief they get into. Audiard is as good at his craft as Phoenix is at his. Beautifully shot and wonderfully written Western. Brutal, touching, plus it's very funny in places.

Very few flaws in this film.

8.3/10

For starters, this isn’t a western. The dialogue isn’t even close to a western, especially one set in 1851. Of course, maybe that’s the point.

I like Phoenix and Riley, but they aren’t western actors, not by a long shot. I could only handle 30 minutes of this before turning it off.

I should have k ow better than to pick a western from Netflix’s “critically acclaimed” list.

I didn’t rate it and I will probably watch the the rest of it one day. 1883, 1923, and Tombstone are westerns. This isn’t.

Good for the direction and the actors, about the script diversity of opinions, for 1, good, for 2, rare

I simply loved this movie.

Nothing incredible, but 'The Sisters Brothers' is a very fine film.

Despite a few moments of major action, this actually makes for pretty chilled viewing as we follow the journey of Eli (John C. Reilly) and Charlie (Joaquin Phoenix) across the West Coast of the United States during 1851. They're attempting to track down John (Jake Gyllenhaal) and Hermann (Riz Ahmed) - for differing objectives.

I think the reason why this is an enjoyable ride is down to the aforementioned cast. Reilly, Phoenix, Gyllenhaal and Ahmed are very good, I approve all of their performances here. They definitely raise everything else up.

There are some impressive scenes from the midway point, which is where the film really does get going; it's solid beforehand, though all of the good stuff comes late on.

I think I expected much more from this, but it's still a film that leaves a positive impression on me.

This film is incredibly underrated, I watched it with my Dad who honestly doesn't like many modern westerns (I, for the most part, love the modern stuff over the old stuff) but we were both pleasantly surprised as the film has enough to satisfy most audiences and every single actor brings their all to their roles. I recommend it big time for people who want to see a modern-day western and also an old school western, but with a lot of heart behind it.

An offbeat, and darkly comic western that is rich in detail, and markedly different from others of its kind. It meanders a little at times, and so that brings the score down a notch, but still worth a watch for fans of the genre and admirers of the actors.

Well that was a good picture with some decent cowboys and some good shoot out action but the horse did drag a little.

A plodding and overlong tale of violence and redemption that doesn't seem to know quite what it's trying to say

The English language debut of French director Jacques Audiard, who adapted the script with his regular writing partner Thomas Bidegain from Patrick deWitt's 2011 novel of the same name, the film posits that even those who seem irredeemable may one day find a path to redemption. Very much of a piece with Audiard's more celebrated humanist work such as De battre mon cœur s'est arrêté (2005), Un prophète (2009), and Dheepan (2015), The Sisters Brothers works primarily as a character study about people trying to do what they feel is right in a world arrayed against them. Unfortunately, it did next-to-nothing for me. I wouldn't say it's a bad movie, as it clearly has a lot going for it; not the least of which is an unapologetic foregrounding of character over plot. However, its episodic rhythm, bifurcated narrative structure, and poorly-defined morality left me unengaged, frustrated, and rather bored.

For my complete review, please visit: https://boxd.it/GAaCp