Deadly Sisters - review

Opening with a scene of a happy family playing on the beach and running in and out of the sea, this movie mistakenly tricks you into thinking it will be about happy family life, but nothing could be further from the truth.

Based on a true story, Deadly Sisters focuses on Sandra and Beth Andersen, sisters who along with their mum and brother continually move house and live an unconventional life with the sisters playing the role of parents due to their mum’s battle with alcoholism and introducing abusive men into the family.

As the sisters escape their home life by throwing themselves into partying and hanging out with friends, they come up with the idea of claiming insurance money if their mum was to die and therefore plan on how to ensure she does.

Starting off as just throwing around ideas, the sisters discuss their plan with a few friends all of whom encourage them, but when the sisters go through with it and their mum is discovered dead, it’s up to them to maintain the idea that she died by drowning while drunk.

But as the reality of their actions sets in, as the one who actually committed the act of murder, Sandra struggles to keep quiet and can’t help talking about it at school. However while some students think she’s joking, it’s not long before the truth is discovered and the sisters are facing the consequences of their actions.

This movie didn’t grab me and I found my mind wandering throughout. With Abigail Breslin and Georgie Henley (The Lion, the Witch & the Wardrobe) starring as the sisters, to be honest I thought they both over-acted and at times made the movie seem really amateur.

Learning at the end of the movie about the real life sisters, I found it interesting that it took so long to discover the truth about their mother’s death and as a whole this movie left me empty.

Because I Said So - review

Diane Keaton is Daphne Wilder, a widowed interfering mother of 3 grown up daughters. As her 2 eldest daughters get married and settle down, her youngest Milly continues to have failed relationships making Daphne anxious that she’ll never find a husband.

As Daphne continues to worry about Milly, she goes to the extremes of putting a personal ad on the internet without anyone’s knowledge and spends the afternoon interviewing potential suitors for her with only one standing out - Jason, rich, charismatic and perfect husband material.

Intrigued by Daphne’s intentions, bar musician Johnny approaches her to find out why she’s spent time with so many men and offers himself as someone to meet Milly, but with her sights set on Jason as the one, Daphne informs he’s not good enough for her leaving him determined to prove her wrong.

After a chance meeting, Milly ends up spending time with both Jason and Johnny causing her mum to try and push her towards Jason, little realising that no matter how hard she tries, you can’t plan love - she needs to let Milly decide for herself and in the process open herself up to love.

Co-starring Mandy Moore and Piper Perabo, this rom-com wasn’t the best. Often it was all over the place with over-acting from both the leads and there were times when parts of the story were referred to without us having knowledge of them.

The movie felt like it had been edited to within an inch of its life leaving gaps in the story and me waiting for it to end.