I walked into Your Sister’s Sister in the 6th Avenue IFC theater knowing full well that its preview basically contained the entire movie, which is usually indicative of impending disappointment. But it was Emily Blunt and Mark Duplass, and the preview was really good, so I could not resist. Well: worst fears realized.

If you read my review of Safety Not Guaranteed, I talk about how that film is very different from “modern indie crap.” Well, Your Sister’s Sister is a perfect example of the “crap” I’m comparing it to. The opening scene is pretty good, where Duplass goes off on his dead brother at the memorial party. Then he quickly heads to the cabin and meets the sister, and the scene leading up to the sex is decent, not great, rather poorly written, but kind of fun, mostly because of Duplass’s remarkable warmth on-screen. At this point we’re maybe a little less than a quarter of the way into the film.

And there the film turns to shit. They couldn’t be bothered to write any dialog for any of these people, except the stupid, incoherent stammering of average people in real life (why do modern indie filmmakers think this is interesting to listen to?) Character development is virtually non-existent. The laughs disappear very quickly. The central plot twist (which I will not give away) actually made the film weaker, although I should note that it did make it easier for the filmmakers to avoid writing dialog. The score absolutely sucks. And the ending!! The fucking non-ending!!! I consider it the height of laziness and artistic arrogance to purposely not end a movie, to just cut it off, almost as if to say “we are too good to bother showing you the ending, so thanks for your money and fuck you.” It is a cheap shot, and it basically ruined what little there was to enjoy in this film. What drives me crazy is that purposely not ending films is becoming a bit of a fad in the indie movement. To paraphrase Stephen Sondheim, it’s one of the last bastions of the artistically destitute.

I think Mark Duplass is a wonderful new actor, but I just hope in the future he picks more films like Safety Not Guaranteed to star in, because he is completely wasted in a piece of crap like this! What is he suppose to do with no lines to say?! Emily Blunt is an actress I also really like, and I am happy that she is taking such a wide variety of roles in light romantic drama, but I am starting to have to face the fact that she is not the kind of actress that is going to carry a film herself; you can’t plunk her down in the middle of a turd and expect her to elevate it (like you can with Diane Lane, for example.) In fact, in turds like this film or like The Five Year Engagement, her limitations as an actress start to really become apparent. She shines much better as a supporting actress in strong material – just my personal opinion, mind you.

If you think you might want to see this film, just go watch the preview. Everything good from the movie is in the preview, even including all the best nuances in each actor’s performance. Since the film has no ending, the preview isn’t even missing that! And unlike the movie, the preview has really good music!