Sisters
Director: Brian De Palma
Writer: Brian De Palma, Louisa Rose
Cast: Margot Kidder, Jennifer Salt, Charles Durning, William Finley, Lisle Wilson, Barnard Hughes, Mary Davenport, Dolph Sweet
Seen on: 29.3.2026

Plot:
Danielle (Margot Kidder) and Philipp (Lisle Wilson) meet at a game show and make a date of it, but their encounter ends deadly for Philipp when Danielle’s twin sister Dominique (Margot Kidder) gets on the scene. From across the street, reporter Grace (Jennifer Salt) becomes a witness, but she has a hard time convincing the police that any crime took place at all, especially since her recent reporting has been about the failures of the police.

Sisters calls back to Hitchcock and seeing it 50 years after it was made, it feels not so much like a hommage than a (bad) copy. Too often have we seen the various twists and turns the story takes. Still, there are some nice touches to the film.

Look, just from the plot description of the film – and the one I read was shorter than the one I wrote above – I could tell you what the biggest plot twists of the film would be, and that’s not even counting Tchechov’s knife set. And it’s not exactly the film’s fault that its plot twists are by now overused, but it builds so much on those twists that it doesn’t work that well without them.

That being said, the film profits hugely from Margot Kidder and Jennifer Salt who bring so much to their roles in very different ways that it is a joy to watch. Kidder brings all the camp to her double-role and it is pretty damn amazing. Salt, on the other hand, brings the counterbalance in an earnest performance that keeps the film from being completely schlocky.

Salt’s role, Grace, was my favorite part of the film: getting an intersectional feminist in the lead of the film was not something I expected, but enjoyed immensely. Her clashes with the police, her astute observations and accounting for the fact that Philipp is Black give the film a lot more backbone than I would have thought.

But in the end, the film left me pretty cold. I see many qualities – apart from Grace, there is also Philipp’s and Danielle’s date that was pretty cute (the game show they were on is a horrible concept though and has to be ignored) – but I just didn’t like the film a whole lot.

Summarizing: not for me.