Iconic American independent filmmaker Jim Jarmusch returns to screens with the poignant Father Mother Sister Brother, his first film in 6 years. Structured as a triptych, Jarmusch presents three complementary stories of familial tension and love, emphasising both the beauty and pain that is born of complex family dynamics.
The first chapter, ‘Father’, stars Adam Driver, Mayim Bialik, and Tom Waits and follows siblings Jeff and Emily (Driver and Bialik, respectively) as they visit their estranged aging father. The second, ‘Mother’, stars Cate Blanchett and Vicky Krieps as sisters Timothea and Lilith, following them as they prepare for an afternoon tea with their domineering mother, played magnificently by Charlotte Rampling. The final chapter, ‘Sister Brother’, follows twins Skye and Billy, played by newcomers Indya Moore and Luke Sabbat, as they prepare to visit their childhood home for the last time after the death of their parents. While the three chapters couldn’t be more dissimilar in their content, together they paint a profound picture of familial life and relationships.
Jarmusch establishes motifs across the chapters, such as drinking water and Rolex watches, that develops a commonality between the film’s differing narratives. The film is highlighting that no one family is alone in their dysfunction and that we might be able to better voice our devotion to each other if we accept that our failings are not unique, an incredibly moving message.
The film’s ensemble cast are fantastic, especially Driver, Waits, and Moore. Moore serves as the emotional core of her chapter, and delivers a naturalistic performance that is both humorous and heartwarming. The interplay between Driver and Waits’ performances in the film’s first chapter is perhaps the highlight of the entire film. Both take on the other’s mannerisms and behaviours and perfectly capture the intergenerational existence of dysfunction. Jeff resents what he perceives as his father’s failings but refuses to recognise that they exist within him in much the same way, an idea that Jarmusch uses to further highlight how the preoccupation with a family’s dysfunction leads to ignorance of the similarities that exist between individuals within the familial relationship.
All in all, Father Mother Sister Brother is a beautiful and thought provoking film that is sure to make viewers, both individually and collectively, reflect on their own familial relationships and view them in a more accepting and forgiving light.
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