Siblings David Weaver

The first thing you'll notice about Siblings is that it's trying really, really hard to be edgy. From the sexy "dress up for grandpa's funeral" intro credits to the constant blue filtering (damn thee, Steven Soderbergh!), there's no doubt in one's mind that Weaver is going for high effect. The second thing you'll notice about Siblings is that the acting is really bad. Every character is drawn with too-broad strokes, from the stereotypical pouty teenage daughter to the youngest brother and sister, annoyingly referred to throughout as "the little ones," the latter of whom, Danielle (Samantha Weinstein), is written at a level very unconvincingly above her age. The film is rendered somewhat tolerable by the creepy Tom McCamus (as Mr. Phillips) and Alex Campbell in the male lead as Joe, but few things can make up for a movie whose "edginess" resorts to a farting dog. Sarah Polley is gratuitously thrown in here (clearly friends with one of the filmmakers), gliding in and out of the plot nonchalantly as the wacky neighbour that knows everyone's secrets. Siblings isn't unwatchable, it's just such a set of genre clichés that it'd be hard to imagine anyone truly loving this movie. You can just imagine the pitch: "what about Party of Five meets Weekend at Bernie's? A group of miserable semi-adopted siblings want to kill their parents and hilarity ensues, yadda yadda." Cheque please! (Step)