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Sisters
review by Terry Wickham
Less than a year before our story starts, two Siamese twins Danielle (Margot Kidder) and Dominique Breton are physically separated. When Dominique perishes on the operating table, Danielle comes down with instant multiple-personality disorder. She starts switching back and forth between each person trying in her own way to keep her sister alive. While she's Danielle, she's relatively normal, sweet young woman who yearns for the things women her age want; a relationship and a career. Dominique on the other hand is the opposite. Psychopathic lunatic would best describe her. While Danielle is working on a television show as an actress, she works with a young black actor Philip Woode (Lisle Wilson) whom she takes an immediate liking to. They end up going back to Danielle's apartment and spending the night together. The next day Danielle tells Philip that it's her birthday and she wants to spend it with him. Suddenly Danielle realizes that she is running out of the medication which is helping subdue her dangerous sister side. She takes out the last two pills, leaving them on the bathroom sink to take later. She asks Philip if he can go get her more pills from the pharmacy. He of course agrees, but not before going to into the bathroom, to get dressed and accidentally knocking the two pills down the sink. Little does he know that this action will symbolize his life. If you think about the story, it's kind of almost a Jekyll and Hyde situation. But director Brian De Palma does a great job of making you think for the first third of the film, that the other sister Dominique might actually still be alive. I found it kind of ironic that Margot Kidder played this role and just a few years ago she went through a twisted mental state. You wonder if the part actually carried too far over into her life. After a murder takes place, De Palma dives into his Hitchcock best, creating as much thrilling suspense as he can muster. You will see remnants of Psycho, Vertigo, Rope, Rear Window and Michael Powell's Peeping Tom. De Palma's use of split screen after the murder would seem trendy, but truthfully, it totally works within the film. I don't believe I've seen another director use the visual technique more effectively. Lisle Wilson does a fine job with the Philip Woode character. He comes across sensitive enough to make us believe that he would care for Danielle without really getting to know her. Actress Jennifer Salt comes into the story mid-way as the nosy neighbor Grace Collier, who witnesses the murder. She's a feisty, diminutive actress who probes too deep into the situation trying to expose the murderer. Charles During plays Private Investigator Joseph Larch, whom Grace Collier works with on the murder case. Durning looks very young and probably a hundred pounds lighter than the actor we see today. He's very funny in this role, which takes a little pressure off the dark, twisted story. The actor who makes the most indelible impression is Bill Finley, who plays Danielle's odd husband, Dr. Emil Breton. Finley is tall, lanky with big eyes, slicked back hair and a pencil-thin mustache. This look, combined with the character's strange actions, make Dr. Breton creepy, crawly, almost like a spider. The dramatic musical score by Bernard Herrmann is another reason the film works so well. Criterion Collection has included an article Brian De Palma wrote back in 1973, chronicling the story of how he got to work with Herrmann. It's a bizarre account that proves how difficult and ingenious the British composer was.
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