Good start, but then it gets ruined

One of the worst ways to make a cult movie is to set out to make a cult movie.

Great story, amazing characters, superb action, enthralling cinematography. Yes, this is something I am glad I spent money on.

Blistering performances.

Carla Tate (Juliette Lewis) is mentally handicapped. Elizabeth (Diane Keaton) pushes her reluctant husband Radley (Tom Skerritt) to send her to a special school. Carla returns home and tries to readjust but her mother is controlling. Her sisters Caroline (Poppy Montgomery) and Heather (Sarah Paulson) are moving on. Her mother finally relents and Carla goes to vocational school where she meets Danny (Giovanni Ribisi) with similar problems.Director Garry Marshall can't help himself in making a broad rom-com out of this material. Juliette Lewis is wrong and the comedy feels awkward. It is horribly Hollywood and loses any edge. In one sense, it's good that mentally handicap characters can be used in a bad rom-com. I just wish that somebody would make a better one.

Whatever wisdom I have tells me to learn from the tribulations of others and to accept that, for the most part, nothing that's happened to me can compare with the worst that nature can throw at my fellow man. I am fortunate to be healthy, to have a loving wife, and an almost normal middle schooler (who would accuse any kid in 8th grade of being normal?). My child has a full set of working brain cells and, even though I work with a number of cognitively delayed children in a high school, I don't know what it's like to try to raise a child who will never come up to the intellectual equal of the middle of the Bell Curve.With this in mind, I entered into the contract of watching Gary Marshall's The Other Sister, hoping that I'd learn something about mentally retarded children and their desire to be independent, to be considered self-actualized, to be free.What I got were fine performances by Juliette Lewis and Giovanni Ribisi, and just another story of the trials and tribulations of the UMC. The second I saw the poshness of the Tate's digs, my defensive distrust of what I was seeing kicked into high gear.Why couldn't Gary Marshall have told the story of a middle class family, struggling with money the way their daughter struggles with the subtleties, the nuances of human intellect? Tom Skerritt would have been a high school math teacher and Diane Keaton would have been something other than Diane Keaton. The story would have been shot in Pocatello, Idaho instead of San Francisco. There would have been no Poppy Montgomery (looking luscious as usual) and no lesbian subplot to give the whole thing a patina of Family Stone gracious living. It would be smelly work shirts and dirty fingernails, and trying to get Carla a place to live within the family budget. Now that would have been a movie!

"They're not drug addicts. They're not ax murderers. They're not Democrats." Well, that's dad's (Tom Skerritt) assessment of his three daughters: one an underachiever (Sarah Paulson), one a lesbian (Poppy Montgomery), and one developmentally disabled (Juliette Lewis). You can imagine how mom (Diane Keaton) deals with her three daughters and the country club set that they belong to, especially when Carla (Juliette Lewis) wants to get married.It was strangely familiar as I work with the developmentally disabled, and it was a good introduction to their world. I could see a lot of my friends in this movie, especially how they react to things they know, but don't understand, and how they deal with upsets to their world. It was beautiful and touching and I swear I teared up at the end.Dad wasn't such a jerk after all. Towards the end he said something else that was moving and so true: "When you reach a certain age and you're not talking to your children, then you are missing part of the journey." Not bad for a Republican.There were several really touching/funny moments in this film. When Carla asks if they should have some music and he selects a Sousa march, I broke up. (You have to be there.) There was a great song playing after they had one of those arguments that every couple has. I wish I knew the name. And, when the light goes on as Daniel (Giovanni Ribisi) is describing "The Graduate" to a fellow traveler on the train, you just know what's coming! This was sure better than watching The Ringer. Lewis and Ribisi rock!

The movie " The Other Sister" was beautifully acted out by Juliette Lewis and Giovanni Ribisi. It shows how mentally challenged people can live a normal life. Although they may not be capable of all things, they can feel the emotion love. I found myself crying and laughing throughout the movie. It's a movie that most definitely pulls at the heart strings and makes you smile. Carla and Daniel are a beautiful and charming couple. They are determined to show everyone that they can be responsible adults. I was also moved by the support and the realization of the family that they could lead normal lives. It's a movie that you want to watch again and again. I highly recommend this movie.