THE AISLE SEAT - "THE OTHER SISTER"

by Mike McGranaghan

I can't believe that there aren't special interest groups picketing theaters showing The Other Sister. This is one of the most insultingly stupid movies I've seen in a long time - a movie that purports to deal with something important but does so in a way that is offensively ignorant. The people who made it are either cynical or stupid.

Juliette Lewis stars as Carla, a mentally challenged young woman who, as the film opens, has just graduated from her "special school" and is moving back home with her controlling mother (Diane Keaton) and sympathetic father (Tom Skerrit). Carla also has two sisters; one is about to be married and the other is a lesbian (a plot twist thrown in just in case we don't realize how intolerant Keaton is, even to her own children). Carla decides that she wants to go to college and get her own apartment, which she eventually convinces her parents to let her do. Then she falls in love with Danny (Giovanni Ribisi) who is also mentally challenged. The thought that her daughter might actually engage in sexual activity causes Keaton to tie the apron strings even tighter, which causes all kinds of half-baked sitcom complications.

I think there is a good movie to be made about this subject matter, but The Other Sister sure isn't it. In fact, this movie is downright offensive in its portrayals of the mentally challenged; they come off as little more than vaudeville comedians, dropping insipid one-liners at every turn. When Carla and Danny decide to engage in intercourse, they pour over a copy of "The Joy of Sex" trying to decide which positions look "okay" to do. When Carla wonders who the first person was ever to have sex, Danny says, "I think it was Madonna." This movie is so full of corny jokes, I kept expecting to hear a drummer doing rim shots in the background.

Even worse is that the mentally challenged characters are universally one-note. They exist solely to be pitied in this movie. Poor Carla and Danny, the movie seems to be saying, they just want to be normal! And make no mistake, despite the naggingly sentimental tone the film takes, it definitely treats its characters as abnormal. Carla is shown to be a misunderstanding klutz who - among other things - wackily uncages a group of canines at a dog show. The low point, perhaps, comes when Carla and Danny go to a costume party, he as a puppy and she as a swan. Yes, people do go to costume parties in real life, but the scene is all about milking a laugh by showing mentally challenged characters dressed up in cute costumes.

As far as reality goes, Juliette Lewis is thoroughly unbelievable. She squints her eyes and talks out of the side of her mouth, but that's the sum total of it. She seems more like an actress doing a technique than a real person. I thought of Dustin Hoffman's convincing performance as an autistic in Rain Man. He did more than just imitate various tics and traits of autism; he created a full-blooded character. Lewis, meanwhile, does a very broad over-stereotype of the mentally challenged. Giovanni Ribisi (best known as the medic in Saving Private Ryan) is a little better, but the film is so poorly written that he doesn't have much to work with.

Aside from its simplistic take on the mentally challenged, The Other Sister is just flat-out lame in its story. This is by-the-numbers screenwriting all the way, with not a single surprise anywhere in the movie's sinfully long 130-minute running time. The big question is whether or not Keaton will ever accept her daughter for who she is, not for her condition. If you can't figure that out within the first five minutes of the story, then you aren't paying attention. As if this weren't bad enough, the plot chooses to have Danny's favorite movie be The Graduate, just so he can disrupt a wedding Benjamin Braddock-style at the end. The director and co-screenwriter here is Garry Marshall, who once made great comedies like Pretty Woman, but now makes garbage like this and Dear God (an aptly titled movie if ever there was one). His approach - tempering a thoughtful subject with sitcom humor - is an utter failure. I can't understand why anyone would spend millions of dollars to make a film so predictable and moronic.

I realize that my objections to The Other Sister may appear to be motivated by political correctness. They are not. I have no personal connection to the subject matter of the movie. My complaint is that the whole thing seems false. There's not a single moment in this detestable movie that seemed plausible. When it was over, I felt like I had been conned. The Other Sister is dumb, unfunny, and condescending. It's already a sure thing to be one of the year's worst movies.

( out of four)

The Other Sister is rated PG-13 for language and sexuality. The running time is 2 hours and 10 minutes.