Ma meilleure amie, sa soeur et moi

My rating: 88/100

I ended up seeing this movie at the Toronto film fest in a rather circuitous way but I'm awfully glad I did.

Nary a car chase nor explosion, but instead a quiet and thoughtful film. It touches on relationships, death, siblings, betrayal, unrequited love, honesty, fears, and forgiveness… and does so in a very believable and refreshing way.

Most of the movie takes place at a secluded rustic waterfront cottage, a family cabin that Iris (Emily Blunt) has suggested her 'bestie', Jay (Mark Duplass) visit to clear his head; he's still emotionally stuck at the one year anniversary of his brother's death.

The secluded locale - without phones, computers and the usually daily distractions - is the conduit which allows the abundance of emotions and introspective feelings bubble up and expose themselves to a trio of characters connected in various and interesting ways.

These three individuals are both frustrating with their flaws, yet endearing with their fragility and weaknesses. How easy it is to identify with all of them! … which can perhaps be attributed to the impromptu conversation Director Lynn Shelton nurtured and encouraged from the mere 70 page script. She confessed that 75% of the dialogue was improvised allowing a unique honesty to develop within each character, thanks to a stellar cast.

I'm thankful Shelton stuck around Toronto for this third screening – she's originally from Seattle which is where this was filmed - and was more than willing to open up to the audience at a post Q&A where we heard her speak passionately and reflectively about the 12 day shoot (wow!) with almost no funding and how she lucked in to Emily Blunt coming on board (thanks to a shared agent) who was keen on the challenge and experience. Also it was nice to hear that during the festival the film had found distribution through IFC, and that cast and crew would now be compensated for this wonderful collaboration.

This film's a winner to me. I hope you have an opportunity to see it.

Lynn Shelton's 'Your Sister's Sister' opened the 2012 Glasgow Film Festival and received a near-rapturous response. This is a keenly observed tale of individuals as complex and frail as you, me and everyone we know...

Iris commemorates the passing of her partner Tom at a gathering of Tom's friends, where Jack, her best friend, offers up a less than flattering eulogy. Jack, coincidentally Tom's sibling, is packed off to a remote island lodge to get his head together, where he encounters Iris's sister, Hannah. Complications ensue - by the bucket-load.

Shelton took time to explain her process in the Q&A at the Glasgow Film Theatre screening. The cast improvised to a certain extent, but spent a vast amount of time creating back-stories for their characters. That preparation pays off in naturalistic exchanges, interruptions and repairs, gestures and looks that remonstrate, encourage or deter in a convincingly authentic manner. The film is very, very funny, and then genuinely touching and fraught. Throw in an ending you will either love (like me) or loathe, and you have a mature, entertaining film whose execution and polish defies the 12-day shooting period.

Wonderful performances from Emily Blunt, Rosemarie DeWitt and Mark Duplass as the conflicted trio. Blunt gets to explore more range here than My Summer of Love or anything else on her CV, and shows a growing maturity. The film is involving from the very first frame and holds your attention throughout. Shelton has found a refreshing formula. Bigger budgets and less challenging schedules may follow, but one hopes the stringent process remains.

Smart film. Smart dialog. Smart characters. No stereotypes. Not a cliché-driven romantic comedy, which obviously put off some of those who reacted negatively.

From start to finish, the roles and situations develop in unpredictable ways that never seem false. There must have been a lot of improvisation go into the script, because the conversations never sound false, and the characters all act and react in ways that could not be more natural.

It is funny without being silly, and it is sad at times in ways that measure the depth of the relationships. Great stuff!

A dialogue heavy film, which I am often very fond of and this is no exception. Basically a three- hander with a trio of sublime and believable performances from Mark Duplass, the always excellent Emily Blunt and the seriously under rated and forever sister (United States of Tara, Rachel's Getting Married) Rosemarie DeWitt. They simply inhabit these characters.

A film told with great honesty and natural flair, with a lot of the dialogue being apparently improvised, I was entertained and intrigued from beginning to end. I laughed out loud on a number of occasions at the spoken wit and the extreme awkwardness of some of the scenes. These are all flawed people, but they are all relatable and likable.

It does fall into a little bit of predictability and cliché as it moves on through the story and I surprisingly had no issue with one aspect that angers many a gay woman, as to me it made sense for the character.

It was a journey I very much enjoyed and it felt quite different from your average rom-com.

i've seen several films that were just played out by one character or two , such as "Conversations with Other Women (2005)", "The Man from Earth (2007)" and "The Sunset Limited (2011)", but they were all so good that i never got bored from the very beginning to the very end. these three movies were all with great dialog and just because their dialogues were so alive and true, the dialogues themselves had become the storyline, the scenarios and the plots. but sadly, this movie totally missed the mark and turned out to be one of most boring movies i've ever watched. the location was Seattle, the two women one with English accent, one with American and they claimed to be sisters? half-sisters? how come two sisters grew up together would have different accent? this was such a bad casting job. i don't want get into details of this movie's flaws, i just want you guys to read all the reviews with the lower or lowest scores, those reviews would tell you what were wrong about this movie and then, you'd know how stupid and how ridiculous this movie was.