''Your Sister's Sister'' is a 2011 American comedy-drama film written and directed by

Lynn Shelton Lynn Shelton (August 27, 1965 – May 16, 2020) was an American filmmaker, known for writing, directing, and producing such films as ''Humpday'' and ''Your Sister's Sister''. She was associated with the mumblecore genre. Early life Shelton was b ...

and starring

Emily Blunt Emily Olivia Leah Blunt (born 23 February 1983) is a British actress. She is the recipient of several accolades, including a Golden Globe Award and a Screen Actors Guild Award, in addition to nominations for three British Academy Film Awar ...

, Rosemarie DeWitt, and

Mark Duplass Mark David Duplass (born December 7, 1976) is an American filmmaker, actor, writer, and musician. With his brother Jay Duplass, he started the film production company Duplass Brothers Productions in 1996. Duplass has written and directed films, ...

. The film premiered on September 11, 2011, at the

Toronto International Film Festival The Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF, often stylized as tiff) is one of the largest publicly attended film festivals in the world, attracting over 480,000 people annually. Since its founding in 1976, TIFF has grown to become a perman ...

, and was released in the United States on June 15, 2012.

Plot

Jack is struggling emotionally a year after the death of his brother. His friend (and his brother's ex-girlfriend) Iris offers to let him stay at her father's isolated island cabin, to restore his spirits. Upon arrival, he finds Iris's sister Hannah, a lesbian who has recently broken up with her partner and is staying at the cabin without Iris's knowledge. They talk and drink together, and end up sleeping together, using Hannah's condom. Iris arrives at the cabin unexpectedly the next morning, and Jack suggests that he and Hannah shouldn't tell her they slept together. Iris later tells her sister that she's fallen in love with Jack. The next day, Iris mentions that Hannah wants to have a baby. Jack examines the used condom, and finds Hannah had poked holes in it. Hannah confesses to Iris she slept with Jack. Iris confronts Jack about it, and Jack accuses Hannah of stealing his sperm. Hannah admits it, but says she would never have slept with Jack if she had known Iris was in love with him. Jack is stunned to hear Iris loves him, and Iris is stunned that Hannah told him. Later that night, Jack talks to Iris and apologizes. He reveals to Iris that he was only with Hannah because he can't be with her, which breaks Iris's heart because they could have avoided it all if only they had confessed their feelings towards each other sooner. Both Jack and Iris break down crying, and Jack leaves. Over the next day or so, the sisters gradually reconcile, with Iris offering to help Hannah to raise the child should she give birth. Eventually, Jack returns to the cabin and requites Iris's love, also offering to help Hannah to take care of her possible baby. The trio return to the city, and the final scene has Hannah taking a home pregnancy test with Iris and Jack joining her to see the result, which is not revealed.

Cast

as Iris * Rosemarie DeWitt as Hannah *

as Jack *

Mike Birbiglia Mike may refer to: Animals * Mike (cat), cat and guardian of the British Museum * Mike the Headless Chicken, chicken that lived for 18 months after his head had been cut off * Mike (chimpanzee), a chimpanzee featured in several books and document ...

as Al

Production

The film was shot in 12 days on

Fidalgo Island Fidalgo Island is an island in Skagit County, Washington, located about north of Seattle. To the east, it is separated from the mainland by the Swinomish Channel, and from Whidbey Island to the south by Deception Pass. The island is named af ...

and in the

San Juan Islands The San Juan Islands are an archipelago in the Pacific Northwest of the United States between the U.S. state of Washington and Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Canada. The San Juan Islands are part of Washington state, and form the core of ...

Washington Washington commonly refers to: * Washington (state), United States * Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States ** A metonym for the federal government of the United States ** Washington metropolitan area, the metropolitan area centered o ...

state.

Rachel Weisz Rachel Hannah Weisz (; born 7 March 1970 ) is an English actress. She is the recipient of various accolades, including an Academy Award, a Laurence Olivier Award, and a BAFTA Award. Weisz began acting in British stage and television in the ...

was originally cast to play the character of Hannah, but had to drop out three days before the shoot. Rosemarie DeWitt was cast the day before the shoot began. The actors partly improvised their dialogue.

Reception

''Your Sister's Sister'' has an approval score of 83% on

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...

based on reviews from 145 critics, with an average rating of 7.00/10. The consensus reads, "Superbly acted and satisfyingly engaging, ''Your Sister's Sister'' subverts rom-com conventions with sensitive direction, an unconventional screenplay, and a big heart." On

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created by Jason Dietz, Marc ...

the film has a score of 72 out of 100 based on reviews from 29 critics.

Remake

A French remake entitled ' (''Et Ta Sœur'' in French speaking markets) premiered in 2014. The film was written and directed by Marion Vernoux and stars

Virginie Efira Virginie Efira (born 5 May 1977) is a Belgian actress and television presenter. Efira got her first leading role in the romantic comedy ''It Boy'' (2013). She subsequently received critical praise for her performance in the comedy drama '' In Be ...

, and

Géraldine Nakache Géraldine Nakache (born 16 February 1980) is a French actress, director and screenwriter of Algerian Jews, Algerian Jewish descent. Life and career Nakache grew up in an Algerian Jews, Algerian Jewish family. She earned a Diplôme d'études uni ...

as Marie, Pierrick and Tessa, the respective analogues of Iris, Jack and Hannah. It is the second Lynn Shelton film to be remade in France after '' Humpday'' three years earlier.

References

External links

* {{Gotham Independent Film Award for Best Ensemble Cast 2011 comedy-drama films 2011 films 2011 LGBT-related films American comedy-drama films American independent films Lesbian-related films Films directed by Lynn Shelton Films shot in Washington (state) LGBT-related comedy-drama films 2011 independent films Films about sisters 2010s English-language films 2010s American films