Rated: MA15+
Directed and Created by: Jacques Audiard
Based on the Book Written by: Patrick DeWitt
Screenplay Written by: Jacques Audiard, Thomas Bidegain
Produced by: Alison Dickey, Michael De Luca, Pascal Caucheteux, Michel Merkt, Megan Ellison, Gregoire Sorlat, John C. Reilly
Starring: John C. Reilly, Joaquin Phoenix, Jake Gyllenhaal, Riz Ahmed, Rutget Hauer, Carol Kane, Rebecca Root.
Set in America, circa 1851, guns-for-hire, The Sisters brothers, Eli (John C. Reilly) and Charlie Sisters (Joaquin Phoenix) work on the request of The Commodore (Rutger Hauer).
The brothers are sent to rob, track and kill – if necessary, or if it’s just easier – Riz Ahmed (Hermann Kermit Warm). A man who has created a formula to find gold.
The killing doesn’t seem to be personal with the Sisters brothers. For the brothers, it’s just life.
But Riz believes life is worth examining; and a life worth examining, is a life worth writing about.
We see Riz hurl his hat at a chicken, to see the bird captured underneath. All the while observed by another tracker, the subtle John Morris (Jake Gyllenhaal) hired to find the chemist and keep him in place until the Sisters arrive – a bit like the chicken under the hat, l guess.
Morris also thinks about life.
When tracker Morris and the chemist, Riz meet, it’s like a meeting of the minds.
But as is the nature of this film, there’s duplicity; the lying to one’s self to not be afflicted by gold fever but to want to create a better society by panning for gold.
That’s what Riz writes about. He wants to create a better society.
And because he’s found a formula that separates gold from water, a chemistry that makes the gold glow, the Sisters brothers have been sent to find him.
The use of light is the common threat used by director Jacques Audiard to piece one scene to the other, one thought to the next; from the light reflected from stolen pearls hanging from a saddle bag to the sun reflected off a snowy mountain.
There’s nothing electric here, only fire light, candle light, sunlight. Yet the film doesn’t dwell on being set in the 1800s. This is more a story of character.
Based on the book written by Patrick DeWitt, we get this intricate thread of people just being who they are: killers, brothers, chemists, intellects. The truth of each character is revealed by circumstance; to convey the subtleties that show a killer to be too nice for a whore, for a drunk to have ambition, a philosopher to have greed.
There’s so much to think about with this film, I’m still unpacking as I’m writing.
We get moments captured in fevered dreams; the nightmares that cry out, the one crying out only to laugh at the helping hand to lighten the idea of safety as the brothers sleep at night, hand on revolver.
It’s incredibly subtle, the quiet touch behind the powerful performances made it feel like no performance at all.
I was particularly impressed with John C. Reilly as Eli Sisters. There’s something genuinely adorable about this guy.
To have layers peeled back from this character, Eli, was the drive behind this intricate film.
Superficially, this is a Western, a classic tale of two bad guys going after the man who’s found the secret to finding gold. But underneath all the killing and gold fever is a delicate tale of humanity.