The Other Sister
- Giovanni Ribisi: Daniel McMann
- Joe Flanigan: Jeff Reed
- Poppy Montgomery: Caroline
The Other Sister is an American film of 1999. Tragicomedy describes the young love and the pursuit of independence of two young people who are both mentally retarded.
Action
The young woman Carla Tate comes from the best conditions of the American upper class - his father is a doctor, his mother committed socially and siblings are all in the starting blocks for your own career. The image of the perfect American family is marred only by a little thing: Carla is retarded and on the mental state of a child.
As a child she was deported to a special boarding school, she returns from this after 10 years back with a university degree and many plans for the future, for example, they would first obtain a home of their own in life. But this plan can not be realized because their over-cautious mother, who is always concerned about the welfare of her child, prevents them from implementing their desire for freedom and autonomy. To make matters worse Carla falls in love with Daniel, a young man who has a similar mental retardation. Together they experience the unfamiliar feeling of being in love and help each other on the way to a more independent life.
As a subplot, the film also deals with the homosexuality of Carla's sister and the difficulty for parents to accept that kind of relationship.
Reviews
- Lexicon of international film: The different convincing acting performances as well as some stylistic uncertainty make the film but ultimately seem rather ambivalent.
- Roger Ebert is of the opinion that anyone who is familiar with the mentally retarded, must perceive the film as insulting. In his review in the Chicago Sun - Times, he finds it downright shameless, how disability is being exploited as a ploy and rest of the plot.
- Stephen Holden finds the film together cumbersome and clumsy in his review in the New York Times. He is a little reconciled through the acting, especially by Giovanni Ribisi, but also by Diane Keaton and Juliette Lewis.