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Tom McCamus in The Sweet Hereafter. Pic from Gothic Phantom's Lair

Video Business 8/22/05: Tom McCamus

Siblings

By Mayna Bergmann -- Video Business, 8/22/2005
Color, NR (mature themes, sexual situations, language), 85 min., DVD $26.95, VHS $39.95

DVD: no extras

Street: Sept. 20, Prebook: Aug. 29

First Run: DVD premiere

Cast: Alex Campbell (Don't Say a Word), Sarah Gadon (Fast Food High), Andrew Chalmers (A Home At the End of the World), Samantha Weinstein, Sarah Polley (My Life Without Me), Tom McCamus (Confessions of a Teenage Drama Queen), Sonja Smits (How to Deal), Nicholas Campbell (Prozac Nation)

Director: David Weaver

MONARCH

Story Line: Joe (Alex Campbell) and his trio of step-siblings (Gadon, Chalmers, Weinstein) have mean-spirited, alcoholic, incestuous parents that they wish to see dead. When exactly that happens—by accident—the group has to cover it up and try to get their deserved inheritance.

Bottom Line: Although it's packaged as a family-friendly comedy, Siblings' slew of profanities and darkly humorous premise makes this drama anything but a film for kids. The film is meant to be over the top, but it's still shocking to see a stepfather (Nicholas Campbell) so shamelessly lascivious toward his stepdaughter, or a stepmother (Smits) tell her stepdaughter that she's so stupid she might as well be dead. If taken with a grain of salt, these situations are funny, but only for an audience that expects this kind of dark humor. Siblings is unrated, but it's definitely not intended for the younger set, no matter what the box art looks like. Polley, who portrays the observant girl next door, doesn't have much to do, but she's the best-known name of the bunch, so you might want to place your marketing focus on her.

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