A lot of very talented and likable people came together to make “Sisters.” Stars Tina Fey and Amy Poehler are much beloved for their iconic TV characters, longtime “Saturday Night Live” writer Paula Pell contributes the screenplay, and “Pitch Perfect” director Jason Moore takes on helming duties. It’s a shame then, that with all these fine creators, this scattershot comedy just doesn’t gel in the way that it should.
One of the main problems with “Sisters” is that stars Fey and Poehler, while clearly having fun together, are not on the same page in terms of their performance choices. Poehler is heartfelt and realistic as overly caring and concerned nurse Maura, while Fey performs a sloppily conceived caricature of trainwreck cougar party girl/single mom, Kate. Fey seems as if she’s in an “SNL” sketch, only halfway committed to the part, with a wink-wink, nudge-nudge air of irony, while Poehler seems like she’s actually in a movie.
The sisters are summoned back to their hometown of Orlando because their parents, played by Dianne Wiest and James Brolin, have sold their cherished family home and need their adult children to pack up their high school bedrooms, filled with ’80s detritus. Reluctant to let go of their old identities as high school party girls, and to stick it to the snobby new owners, the sisters decide to throw one last rager, for old time’s sake.
Toward the end of the party, their dad admonishes the group of assembled adults to “go home before I call your children,” and that wordplay seems to be the premise that launched the whole film — what happens when the middle-aged crowd parties like they’re in high school? Well, things are very boring at first, until Kate gives a rousing motivational speech and rallies the troops with rounds of shots.
