Sibling Rivalry

Directed by Rob Reiner, Sibling Rivalry details the chaos that unfolds after a woman (Kirstie Alley’s Marjorie Turner) has an affair with her husband’s (Scott Bakula’s Harry) brother (Sam Elliott’s Charles) and subsequently discovers the man dead in bed next to her. Filmmaker Reiner, armed with Martha Goldhirsh’s screenplay, delivers an erratic yet mostly agreeable comedy that benefits from the top-notch efforts of its impressively stacked cast, with Alley’s effective turn as the increasingly frantic protagonist matched by such first-class periphery players as Jami Gertz, Ed O’Neill, and Carrie Fisher. (It’s clear, ultimately, that the movie’s MVP is Bill Pullman, as the actor, cast as a bumbling blinds salesman, turns in an often laugh-out-loud funny turn that remains a continuing highlight.) And although it runs a brisk 87 minutes, Sibling Rivalry‘s hit-and-miss narrative admittedly does ensure that it’s rarely as compelling or engrossing as Reiner has surely intended – with the director’s ongoing efforts at cultivating a frenetic, farce-like atmosphere generally falling disappointingly flat. It’s nevertheless impossible to entirely dislike or dismiss Sibling Rivalry, what with its roster of familiar faces and smattering of amusing comedic set-pieces, which does, in the end, cement its place as a watchable (albeit thoroughly forgettable) endeavor that feels like it could (and should) have been much, much better.

**1/2 out of ****