Review by Eric Hillis
Directed by: Jim Jarmusch
Starring: Tom Waits, Adam Driver, Mayim Bialik, Charlotte Rampling, Cate Blanchett, Vicky Krieps, Indya Moore, Luka Sabbat
Outside of the horror genre, anthology movies are scarce. 20-30 minutes is just enough time to build up some creepy atmosphere and deliver a climactic scare, but such a limited time frame doesn't lend itself well to character development. One non-horror filmmaker who has consistently employed the portmanteau format is Jim Jarmusch. Father Mother Sister Brother is the writer/director's fourth anthology movie, following Mystery Train, Night on Earth and Coffee and Cigarettes.
Jarmusch uses time effectively in his anthologies. Aware that he doesn't have the scope to send his characters on typical arcs, he instead drops us into specific moments in their lives. When we watch a Jarmusch anthology we feel like we're eavesdropping, and that intrusive quality is foremost in his latest.
As the title suggests, it tells three stories of familial relations. We are at our most intimate and private when we're with our families, and we often keep them at arm's length from the other people in our lives. There is a reason the anxiety of introducing a lover to your family has fuelled so many comedies. When you return home with a partner you are combining the life you built for yourself with the one fashioned by your parents. You can change your life when you leave home, but you can't change your family.
The "Father" is played by Tom Waits and lives in a seemingly ramshackle home in rural New Jersey. His adult children, Jeff (Adam Driver) and Emily (Mayim Bialik), pay the old man a visit for the first time since their mother's funeral two years earlier, at which their father suffered an unspecified "episode." Perhaps to assuage guilt, Jeff has been helping his father financially, forking out for various repairs around the house. He begins to grow suspicious of his father when the notes a Rolex on his wrist, which the old duffer claims is fake, and the couch hidden under a shawl looks awfully new.
"Mother" takes us to Dublin and the home of Catherine (Charlotte Rampling), an elderly English author who like so many in her profession has relocated to Ireland, presumably for tax reasons. Her daughters, Timothea (Cate Blanchett) and Lilith (Vicky Krieps), have also moved to the city, but they only see their mother once in a year. That annual visit has come around once more and Catherine lays on a spread of PG Tips and French Fancies. Timothea is uptight and serious while Lilith is a rebellious flibbertigibbet, though she is still unable to reveal her lesbian relationship to her mother. It quickly becomes clear that none of the three parties really want to be in other's presence.
Finally we are taken to Paris where we meet twin siblings Skye (Indya Moore) and Billy (Luka Sabbat). Their parents recently perished in an airplane crash and they have returned to their childhood apartment, which Billy has recently cleared out. It is brutally ironic that of all the three segments, the only one in which the parental figures are viewed with affection is the segment in which the parents have passed away. Reminiscing about their parents, Skye and Billy almost regress to childhood, and Moore and Sabbat convince us that we're watching two siblings who have been emotionally joined at the hip for their entire lives.
The final segment is also the only one that gives us a sense of closure for its characters. Unlike the adult children of the other stories, Skye and Billy clearly had a great relationship with their parents, perhaps because they were bohemians who treated them as friends rather than simply heirs. Nothing has been left unsaid between the twins and their parents. They can move on in peace.
The other two segments are more engaging however, perhaps specifically because of what is left unsaid. There is a layer of passive aggression between the parents and their children, a sense that much that needs to be said will go unspoken until it's too late. But we also suspect Father and Mother are entirely wise to their offspring. Waits' Father is clearly playing his son for a fool, while Rampling's Catherine has a look in her eyes that suggests she sees through the facades her daughters have built for themselves. Late in her career, Rampling gives one of her finest performances (drawing the focus away from Blanchett and Krieps is quite the feat), and the look on her face as Catherine watches her geographically close but emotionally estranged daughters leave for another year will haunt anyone who has ever felt guilt over not being in their parents' lives enough.
Father Mother Sister Brother is in UK/ROI cinemas from April 10th.
