It took three actors just 12 days of shooting and a handful of story guidelines to turn director Lynn Shelton's latest - and largely improvised - drama into a charming, moving and witty comedy.
Shelton didn't set out to make her drama about human relationships a funny film. What she did do was put her faith in a small cast who where encouraged to improvise around three-quarters of the film's scenes. This approach and the situations she created for the characters to respond to allow the humour to bubble to the surface through some very real and natural performances.
At the beginning of My Sister's Sister we meet Jack (Duplass) at a memorial for his brother, who died a year earlier. It's clear Jack isn't dealing well with the loss of his brother; and that night he accepts the offer from his best friend, and brother's ex-girlfriend, Iris (Blunt) to go to her father's remote cabin for some time alone.
Arriving at the cabin Jack is surprised to find Iris' sister Hannah (DeWitt) is already there, also nursing a broken heart after breaking up with her girlfriend. A drinking session later Jack and Hannah end up in bed together, and the real fun begins when Iris unexpectedly turns up at the cabin the next morning.
The set-up for the sibling rivalry is a little forced, mostly when Hannah and Jack first meet, but Shelton keeps the story moving at a pace which forgives any off-pitch moments. What could have been an indulgent talk-fest is tightly reined, and all the conversations that made it to screen really matter.
