''Sibling Rivalry'' is a 1990 American

black comedy Black comedy, also known as black humor, bleak comedy, dark comedy, dark humor, gallows humor or morbid humor, is a style of comedy that makes light of subject matter that is generally considered taboo, particularly subjects that are normally ...

film directed by

Carl Reiner Carl Reiner (March 20, 1922 – June 29, 2020) was an American actor, author, comedian, director and screenwriter whose career spanned seven decades. He was the List of awards and nominations received by Carl Reiner, recipient of many awards and ...

and starring Kirstie Alley, Sam Elliott, Jami Gertz,

Bill Pullman William Pullman (born December 17, 1953) is an American actor. After graduating with a Master of Fine Arts degree in theater, he was an adjunct professor at Montana State University before deciding to pursue acting. Pullman made his film debut i ...

Carrie Fisher Carrie Frances Fisher (October 21, 1956 – December 27, 2016) was an American actress and writer. She played Princess Leia in the Star Wars original trilogy, original ''Star Wars'' films (1977–1983) and reprised the role in'' Star Wars: The F ...

, and Scott Bakula.

Plot

Marjorie Turner has been married for eight years and is tired of her husband Harry's neglect and his snooty relatives, most of them doctors. One day her sister, Jeanine, urges her to break out of her rut and have a fling. At a grocery store, Marjorie allows herself to be picked up for a quick sexual tryst. Unfortunately, her lover dies during the act. Even more unfortunately, the dead man turns out to be Harry's long-absent brother Charles. Complications ensue, some of them involving a

vertical blinds A window blind is a type of window covering. There are many different kinds of window blinds which use a variety of control systems. A typical window blind is made up of several long horizontal or vertical slats of various types of hard mate ...

salesman named Nick. He was in the hallway, wanting to get into a room to install blinds so he could convince the hotel to invest in them. When Marjorie leaves the room, she inadvertently both drops her wallet and leaves the door ajar. Thinking he's in luck, Nick gets to work hanging the blinds. Halfway through a pole slips, hitting the lifeless man in the bed. Feeling responsible for the man's death, he calls Marjorie as he assumes she's his wife. Marjorie goes to the hotel room to get her wallet back, and she and Nick panic, so they decide to make it look like a suicide. She writes a suicide note, and they empty bottles of pills down his throat. From home, she calls 911 to report the death. When police arrive, Nick is in the room and insists it must have been a prank. His brother Wilbur is a police officer investigating the case. He meets Jeanine while investigating the 911 call. They have chemistry and become involved. The autopsy reveals the non-lethal pills in Charles's esophagus as well as possible evidence of cardiac arrest. In the meantime, Nick has confessed to accidentally hitting Charles in the head with the blind hardware. Calling a family meeting, Harry fills them in on the investigation, Jeanine bursts in, telling Marjorie about Nick protecting her by confessing. Marjorie comes clean in front of everyone, and when Harry's family hears they attack her. He tells them to get out. Shortly after, he both leaves the practice and moves away. Months later, things are looking up for the siblings. Nick finally becomes successful selling blinds, Wilbur has become police chief and Jeanine moves in with him. Marjorie gets the story about her, Harry and Charles published and Harry comes back after having opened his own practice to start over.

Cast

* Kirstie Alley as Marjorie Turner *

as Nicholas Meany, Wilbur's younger brother *

as Iris Turner-Hunter, Harry's younger sister * Jami Gertz as Jeanine, Marjorie's younger sister * Scott Bakula as Harry Turner, Marjorie's husband *

Frances Sternhagen Frances Hussey Sternhagen (January 13, 1930 – November 27, 2023) was an American actress. She was known as a character actress who appeared on- and off-Broadway, in movies, and on television for over six decades.Joy, Car"Frances Sternhagen i ...

as Rose Turner, Harry's mother * John Randolph as Charles Turner, Sr., Harry's father * Paul Benedict as Dr. Plotner * Sam Elliott as Charles Turner, Jr., Harry's older brother * Ed O'Neill as Wilbur Meany * Bill Macy as Pat * Matthew Laurance as Casey Hunter, Iris's husband

Production

Principal photography began on April 16, 1990, and ended on June 21, 1990. Filming took place in and

Los Angeles Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...

and

Marin County Marin County ( ) is a county located in the northwestern part of the San Francisco Bay Area of the U.S. state of California. As of the 2020 census, the population was 262,231. Its county seat and largest city is San Rafael. Marin County is ac ...

, California. Interior scenes were filmed on set at Warner Bros. Studios.

Release

''Sibling Rivalry'' was released on October 26, 1990 in 1,448 theatres. It opened at #2 at the box office, grossing $4 million in its opening weekend. It stayed at #2 in its second weekend grossing $8.424.402. After three months in theatres, the film went on to gross $17,854,933 in its theatrical run.

Reception

The film received negative reviews from critics and has a 25% rating on

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review aggregator, review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee ...

from 12 reviews. In his review,

Roger Ebert Roger Joseph Ebert ( ; June 18, 1942 – April 4, 2013) was an American Film criticism, film critic, film historian, journalist, essayist, screenwriter and author. He wrote for the ''Chicago Sun-Times'' from 1967 until his death in 2013. Eber ...

wrote, "The screenplay is founded on the ageless principles of

screwball comedy Screwball comedy is a film subgenre of the romantic comedy genre that became popular during the Great Depression, beginning in the early 1930s and thriving until the early 1950s, that satirizes the traditional love story. It has secondary charact ...

, but the film lacks the energy, the timing and the sense of manic frenzy that's generated by the best screwball." In contrast, ''

TV Guide TV Guide is an American digital media In mass communication, digital media is any media (communication), communication media that operates in conjunction with various encoded machine-readable data formats. Digital content can be created, vi ...

'' wrote, "Despite some rough patches when the heavy plotting threatens to overwhelm the proceedings, ''Sibling Rivalry'' is brash, madcap entertainment." The review added, "Although some of the supporting roles aren't cast felicitously…the film generates enough belly laughs to coast over these over-played spots and emerge with its hilarity intact. Whether the twists and turns of this complicated game of 'what to do with the body' would work as ingeniously well without Kirstie Alley is open to question. She's the comedy's heart and soul. In the wrong hands, her character could have seemed like a whiny neurotic, but Alley's ace timing, understated delivery, and verve result in a flawless comic creation--a goody two shoes who liberates herself from playing the constricting role that her in-laws and her own inhibitions prescribe."

References

External links

* * * {{Carl Reiner 1990 films 1990 black comedy films 1990s English-language films American black comedy films Castle Rock Entertainment films Columbia Pictures films English-language black comedy films Films about siblings Films directed by Carl Reiner Films scored by Jack Elliott (composer) Films shot in California Films shot in Los Angeles 1990s American films