Your Sister's Sister 2011

Mary F. Pols, TIME Magazine: What sets Shelton apart is her interest in the way people can absorb acute discomfort and move on from it, even improving their lives because of it. Read more

Kathleen Murphy, MSN Movies: No question that Shelton and her cast share a remarkable collaborative rapport. Read more

A.O. Scott, New York Times: The picture is, intermittently, delightful to contemplate. Read more

Rex Reed, New York Observer: The jabber is maddening, but with all due respect, the actors are wonderful, the performances as natural as inhaling. Still, in Emily Blunt's case, there is such a thing as too natural. Read more

Joe Morgenstern, Wall Street Journal: [It] was shot in a mere 12 days, on a budget that must have been minuscule. A couple of minutes after it's started, though, you know you're in the presence of people who will surprise and delight you. Read more

Moira MacDonald, Seattle Times: An actor's movie, offering the small-scale pleasures of a good story well-told. Read more

Noel Murray, AV Club: The location of Your Sister's Sister is lovely, and the performances are top-notch, captured by Shelton in the same casually honest way that made Humpday such a delight. Read more

Keith Phipps, AV Club: This time out, Shelton seems to be playing the part of someone who doesn't know how to finish what she started. Read more

Ty Burr, Boston Globe: By the end of this graceful little emotional farce, you know these people, their hopes and their panic, and you wish them the very best. Read more

J. R. Jones, Chicago Reader: Shelton manages to break past the genre's narrow social parameters to a moving story of grief, betrayal, and devotion. Read more

Michael Phillips, Chicago Tribune: It's pleasant as far as it goes. For all the blithe interaction among the central three performers, however, the material's conventional and predictable. Read more

Peter Rainer, Christian Science Monitor: Since it's essentially a three-character movie, it's a good thing that the characters, and the actors who play them, can hold the screen. Read more

Tom Long, Detroit News: It certainly shows that fine films don't need big budgets, capturing some sweet lightning in an arresting bottle indeed. Read more

Lisa Schwarzbaum, Entertainment Weekly: Your Sister's Sister moves far beyond easy conventions, and the rewards are all the richer. Read more

John DeFore, Hollywood Reporter: If the movie's sweetly earnest resolution scene plays a bit too easily, we like the characters too much to object. Read more

Rene Rodriguez, Miami Herald: Who are these people, and why are we watching them? Read more

Rafer Guzman, Newsday: "Your Sister's Sister" follows the indie-cinema blueprint to the letter with one exception: One of the film's characters is a lesbian. Read more

Anthony Lane, New Yorker: All three performers add both tone and, when required, a fierce volume to their interplay. Read more

Chase Whale, Film.com: It's comforting to watching dramatic and comic fiction regarding the things some of us actually have to deal with in life. When done right, those kinds of films are worth your time. YOUR SISTER'S SISTER happens to be one of them. Read more

Stephen Whitty, Newark Star-Ledger: Shelton is too much in thrall to improvisation, and letting the actors "find" their characters. Read more

Bob Mondello, NPR: Duplass is doing his conflicted mumblecore thing quite elegantly these days, and he's joined here by Blunt's fragile Iris and DeWitt's alternately guarded and abrasive Hannah. Read more

Elizabeth Weitzman, New York Daily News: The dialogue was largely improvised during a 12-day shoot, and the chemistry between the leads appears effortless. Read more

Lou Lumenick, New York Post: Shelton's work here suggests that mumblecore may be finding its way out of the artistic ghetto it's placed itself in. Read more

Carrie Rickey, Philadelphia Inquirer: Shelton and her cast are so skillful that before long it seems we are not moviegoers watching a screen but flies on a wall witnessing real encounters and the beauty of the Pacific Northwest. Read more

Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times: A spontaneous, engaging character study of three people alone in a cabin in the woods. Read more

Peter Travers, Rolling Stone: A trio of superb performances guide a plot that pivots on secrets and lies before they fester. Your Sister's Sister works its way into your head until you can't stop thinking about it. Read more

Mick LaSalle, San Francisco Chronicle: Movies that start well and end badly occur often enough, and yet even knowing that is no preparation for what happens to Your Sister's Sister. Read more

Dana Stevens, Slate: A keenly observed romance whose apparent rough-edged naturalism masks a considerable degree of craft. Read more

Christy Lemire, Associated Press: Even when things get a little crazy and maybe even too soapy, "Your Sister's Sister" always feels like it's rooted in a tangible reality, a place of unpredictability and abiding humanity. Read more

Colin Covert, Minneapolis Star Tribune: There's a nice, loose-limbed improvisatory feeling to "Your Sister's Sister," a quality that identifies it as the work of artisans, not assembly-line professionals. Read more

Calvin Wilson, St. Louis Post-Dispatch: This is a smart, moving film that's also very, very funny. Read more

Ian Buckwalter, The Atlantic: Effective evidence that the emotional immediacy in the halting rhythms of extemporaneous speech can often trump the art of the well-chosen word. A film that is both warmly and naturally funny as well as uncomfortable and awkward. Read more

Alonso Duralde, TheWrap: Shelton's empathy for the characters bleeds through, even at their worst moments. Read more

Cath Clarke, Time Out: This film should come with a warning: don't watch with a sibling. Unless you're up for some knowing elbow-digs. Read more

Joshua Rothkopf, Time Out: Barring some late-inning coyness, it's some of the truest, dinged-heart couples' circling of the year. Read more

Linda Barnard, Toronto Star: Honest and free-spirited, this romantic comedy is filled with genuine and uncomfortable moments that can only come when a trio of talented actors ... are invited to make it up as they go along. Read more

Claudia Puig, USA Today: Romantic, funny, surprising and thoroughly involving, Your Sister's Sister is the rare film you give yourself over to completely. Read more

Justin Chang, Variety: The three leads are pitch-perfect here, loose and low-key yet fully in character. Read more

Melissa Anderson, Village Voice: Expertly makes us squirm for about half its running time only to soothe us with empty pop-psych declarations. Read more

Logan Hill, New York Magazine/Vulture: With this convoluted set-up in place, three actors with extraordinary chemistry play it all out to the end, and somehow the feeling deepens, even as the jokes spiral out of control. Read more

Ann Hornaday, Washington Post: It's a tribute to Shelton and her cast that they've made a film about the difficulties of love, friends and family look so easy. Read more