by Lisa Nystrom
Worth: $11.50
FilmInk rates movies out of $20 — the score indicates the amount we believe a ticket to the movie to be worth
Cast:
Jessica Biel, Elizabeth Banks, Corey Stoll, Matthew Modine
Intro:
A compelling thriller …
A compelling thriller that delves into the complexities of family and the secrets that can either destroy them or bind them together irrevocably.
Chloe Taylor (Jessica Biel) is an Ivy League graduate, with a coveted high paying job in New York and a loving family. Chloe’s life is magazine-cover-perfect until the moment her husband, Adam, is found brutally murdered in their home.
Along with the influx of police and reporters into her life, Chloe is also dealing with the arrival of her estranged sister Nicky (Elizabeth Banks), who just so happens to also be Adam’s ex-wife and the biological mother of Chloe and Adam’s teenage son, Ethan. With no one else to turn to when the police begin to favour Ethan as a suspect in his father’s murder, Chloe allows Nicky into her home, and each of the carefully tied bows keeping Chloe’s picture-perfect life so carefully secured begin to unravel.
Based on the 2019 novel by Alafair Burke, The Better Sister is less murder mystery than it is court procedural. Yes, we are given crumbs of backstory each episode to allow the audience insight into just how the sisters’ lives reached this point, but the main draw of the story is the case being built against Ethan.
The performances are solid; Biel does a great job of reining in the emotion in order to preserve her façade, only to break magnificently when pushed too far. Her tightly wound intensity is the perfect push against the pull of Elizabeth Banks’ Nicky, who is messy edges where her sister is sharp surfaces. She’s attention-grabbing and tenacious, but equally as ready to shatter as her sister—and no one knows where to find those pressure points better than a sibling.
More family drama than tension-filled thriller, the plot moves like slow-acting poison, building towards a conclusion that feels inevitable and yet satisfying after the journey taken to get us there.
