A mainstay in French for almost 40 years, Jacques Audiard frequently chronicles criminals and convicts (or ex-criminals/ex-convicts) trying to either navigate a seedy underbelly or readjust to civilian life. He broke through to American audiences with his 2009 prison drama A Prophet, about an Algerian youth forced to negotiate between rival subcultures, before winning the Palme d’Or in 2015 for Dheepan, which follows a former Tamil Tiger trying to carve out a little bit of peace in Paris. His latest film, The Sisters Brothers, superficially scans as a departure from his previous work; it’s not only his first English-language film, but it’s also a period Western to boot. Yet, The Sisters Brothers neatly fits into Audiard’s established thematic mode: two hitmen whose latest mission inevitably forces them to envision a future without violence and crime.
Adapted from Patrick deWitt’s novel by Audiard and his screenwriting partner Thomas Bidegain, The Sisters Brothers’ core story compels on its own accord. Set in 1951 from the Pacific Northwest down to California, John C. Reilly and Joaquin Phoenix play the eponymous Brothers who are tasked to retrieve a special formula for finding gold from renowned chemist/prospector Hermann Kermit Warm (Riz Ahmed). Though their criminal associate, John Morris (Jake Gyllenhaal), has been assigned to stalk and hold Warm until the Brothers arrive, he eventually shirks his duty after being swayed by the chemist’s ability and rhetoric. Now, the Brothers must find both Morris and Warm before their boss, the mysterious Commodore (Rutger Hauer), raises any suspicion.
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