Have you ever taken the Miller Analogies Test?  I took it to qualify for entrance into my masters program (longer ago than I care to remember!).

It goes something like this – A is to A1 as B is to B1 and looks like this – A : A1 :: B : B1

Still with me?

Here’s a Wikipedia example:

Bach : Composing :: Monet :

a. painting

b. composing

c. writing

d. orating

And, the answer is a. painting.

When I was watching Your Sister’s Sister, I kept thinking about Once.  My train of thought went something like – Once : musical :: Your Sister’s Sister : __________.

The answer – ding, ding, ding, ding – romantic comedy.

Once, a revisionist/realistic film, is to musical as Your Sister’s Sister, a revisionist/realistic film is to romantic comedy.  Both films are spare, understated (with one caveat), and character/performance-driven, which keeps them from being conventional genre pictures.  (Aside:  when I think of conventional genre pictures, I am as likely to call them movies as films, but I never call “serious films” movies.)

I liked the (mostly) understated Lynn Shelton film and found the main actors – Mark Duplass, Emily Blunt, and Rosemarie DeWitt – strong even if the characters were a little under-written for me.

The story is basic:  boy loves girl, boy sleeps with girl’s sister after drinking excessively, boy and sister try to keep girl from finding out.  So far, so good.  It’s the end of the film that doesn’t work as well for me.

The film is engaging as it unfolds, if not terribly memorable, but I do have one complaint.  The ending is a bit twee.  (I can use that word because one of the sisters is British.)

Take a look.  See if you agree.