Kent Faulcon and Denise Boutte in Sister's Keeper
Kent Faulcon’s 2007 film, “Sister’s Keeper”, is a story about a mysterious man named Jacob. He’s an assassin – and his job is starting to get to him. He’s one of the best “freelancers” in the business, but he wants to get out. He gets his assignments from an even more mysterious man named Malikai (played by Eric Roberts), who is the only person he can trust. He’s in strong competition with a whole group of assassins, who want his jobs, and probably wouldn’t mind taking him out to make the playing field a little more even. Of course, quitting your job as a killer-for-hire is never that easy. So he makes a deal for one more hit. Out in the country, there’s a small family, and the mark is a woman named Diane (played by Denise Boutte). All he’s gotta do is go out to the country house, find Diane, kill her, and move on.
So, for all intents and purposes, this film should be 20 minutes long. About that far into the movie, though, he gets to the door, knocks, gets the gun out. The target opens the door, identifies herself, and then — invites him in.
Diane is great to look at but suffers from Acute Lois Lane Disorder – she can’t see obvious signs around her that things are not what they seem. Her husband, Preston, for example, is sending the biggest “I’m mentally and physically checking out of this relationship” signs EVER, but she rolls along like everything’s okay. She has just heard from her long lost brother, a man she’s never met. She believes the assassin to be that man, an investment banker named “JB”. No, she HASN’T asked for ID, funny you should ask. Jacob plays along though, getting to know his target, her husband, best friend, nephew, and grandmother. Is he planning one big kill to get some prime retirement real estate, or has something else happened to Jacob out at Diane’s house?
“Sister’s Keeper” is Kent Faulcon’s feature debut, and it’s a great film to start his career. He’s able to do a lot with a modest budget. There’s time put into dialogue that would normally have gone into explosions and running around. There are moments of suspense that work really well. Jacob is torn between who he is and who he wants to be, and the scenes where this film says that without words are better than the scenes where it’s made plain.
Kent’s cinematic influences are showing in this film, including Luc Besson and Spike Lee. Kent builds worlds around characters and turns a tragic cliche we’ve seen a million times into a character we connect with and, in time, care about. But when it’s time to get down to business, this film gets right to it.
Young actor Blake Hightower’s in this film, playing Diane’s nephew “Quince”. The scenes between Kent and Blake are really good. The “Mama Pines” character, played by Esther Scott, is pretty much “Big Momma” by the book – the anchor of the family with deep roots in the community. Mama’s roots are darker than she leads us to believe – and that’s a fun revelation!
Sister’s Keeper feels like it was made more for TV than the theater. Kent’s background as a TV actor may have something to do with that. But what I liked about the TV feel of this story was that it was a balanced experience. Just enough Spike TV fpr the action junkies, and jst enough Lifetime TV for the drama junkies.
Verdict: RENT
Available now for rental in stores, Amazon, and Netflix
Family rating: GROWN FOLKS ONLY. Language, sexual situations and violence.
Offset Filmworks/SEE Entertainment
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