The Other Sister (1999)

★½
Garry Marshall focused his career on making feel-good movies, but with The Other Sister he misfires by failing to deal with the difficult topic of mental impairment. His 1999 release stars Juliette Lewis as Carla Tate, a young woman with an undefined handicap that required her to go to a special school. Her parents and two sisters love her very much, but what should be a challenge for the whole family is reduced to the mother pulling her hair out over what’s best for Carla, creating dispute when none should exist. I’ll admit that I have very little experience working with the handicapped and the commitment involved. I volunteered for a few months in 2001 to provide Saturday morning recreational activities for the mentally disabled in my community, but that’s pretty much it. However, I do recognize when a movie is trying to pit characters against each other to create conflict. Conflict is essential in many movies, but it must arise naturally from characters who are fleshed out so that their dilemma makes sense. Marshall instead creates a playing field much like one of those generic vibrating football board games with plastic players that scamper in all directions.

Carla returns home after school ends and wants to attend a public vocational school to learn how to be a veterinarian's assistant. Mother Elizabeth (Diane Keaton) is skeptical of the notion, but father Radley (Tom Skerritt) is all for it. After some hesitation, Elizabeth agrees and allows Carla to enroll. During registration, Carla meets Danny (Giovanni Ribisi), who is afflicted with the same handicap but has more independence. Danny has an apartment and a job at a bakery. The two become friends, and his ability to live independently inspires Carla to ask for her own apartment, which leads to more stress for Elizabeth and more appeasing by Radley. As all this is happening, Carla’s sister Caroline (Poppy Montgomery) is getting married, which introduces a whole other set of complications for Elizabeth, such as the alienation of third daughter Heather (Sarah Paulson), who is a lesbian and can’t invite her partner due to Elizabeth’s misgivings. Marshall includes this little tidbit because Elizabeth’s stance against Heather’s partner provides a second opportunity for her to complete her 180-degree character arc, because finally supporting Carla’s wedding apparently isn’t enough.

Yes, Carla’s wedding. After Caroline gets married, Carla decides she wants to marry too. She and Danny have already been sexually active, getting tips from the book The Joy of Sex. In a stupid joke, Danny speculates that Madonna invented sex, because Madonna had a reputation of being overtly sexual (her book Sex became this highly desired but unattainable tome in my high school). After a brief split, instigated when Danny drunkenly declares his love for Carla and embarrassing her in the process, Danny sneaks into the church where Carla is a bridesmaid to pull a Benjamin Braddock-style intervention. I should not be surprised that The Other Sister took a page from The Graduate, an overrated relic of the ‘60s. Garry Marshall is sometimes a good director, but his commitment to nonviolence in his movies, while commendable, results in pandering to everyone’s desire to see society uplifted in the best possible way (his Pretty Woman, while good, sanitized prostitution to the point that Ken Russell made Whore in response). I believe he genuinely meant no offense when he made this, and he likely wanted to highlight the extraordinary dedication required to guide a mentally handicapped person through this crazy world. Marshall goes wrong in his presentation of Carla’s parents and his overuse of music to steer our emotions. This is another influence carried over from The Graduate.

While Elizabeth nearly objects to everything Carla wants to do, Radley is willing to keep Carla on a long leash. There’s some dialogue between the two that reveals Radley’s previous drinking problem. Very little is said about it, other than that Radley has managed to stay sober. Is this supposed to be why he’s more open to Carla’s need for freedom? Is he making up for something he did in the past? It’s possible, but Marshall doesn’t give us enough to draw that conclusion. The fact that I’m even considering it now isn’t good enough. I’m speculating, sure, but I have nothing solid on which to conclude that Radley’s alcoholism is the reason for his differing point of view. Marshall is so determined for us to cheer for the underdog that even when Elizabeth is right, we’re still expected to gravitate towards Radley’s side. She opposes Carla’s desire to marry Danny and raises some excellent points, which Radley overlooks for the sake of ensuring Carla’s happiness. The school and apartment, I understand, but not the marriage. This is where Elizabth and Radley should agree and draw the line, at least for the present. Carla and Danny have known each other for approximately five months (the movie’s actual timeline is vague), and Danny’s own father stopped subsidizing his rent due to failing grades.

The Other Sister proceeds by the numbers, with pop music (none of it any good) inserted on cue during the story’s emotional highs, lows and everything in between. Juliette Lewis and Giovanni Ribisi are fine in their roles. Under the circumstances, they did the best they could with what they had. I liked Hector Elizondo as Ernie, Danny’s landlord. Much of my dissatisfaction is directed towards Marshall’s inability to get out of his own way. As mentioned, Danny imbibes too much liquid courage and publicly embarrasses Carla at a Christmas party by revealing their sexual encounter. Everyone in the room laughs at him. I didn’t believe this for a moment. A room full of adults would likely slip into an uncomfortable silence, with a few sprinklings of nervous laughter here and there, instead of laughing uproariously at a drunken teenager. There is also the matter of the title. Why is this called The Other Sister? Who is the other sister? Is it supposed to be Carla, who is accepted by her family despite disagreements on how much supervision she needs? Is she considered an “other” because of her condition? Could it be a sneaky reference to either Caroline, who’s getting married but tires of all the bickering, or Heather, because she’s a lesbian? I don’t know, and I don’t know if Marshall really thought it through. It’s a lazy title for a lazy movie.

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