In 2003 two high school-aged sisters named Sandra and Beth Andersen, who would later become known as the infamous “Bathtub Girls,” murdered their mother and almost got away with it. Perfect Sisters is a crime drama based on the true story. Linda Andersen (Mira Sorvino) is an alcoholic unable to hold a job who brings home a new boyfriend every other week. Sandra and Beth (Abigail Breslin and Georgie Henley, respectively) have only each other to depend on, and when they finally become fed up with their mother’s lifestyle and her new boyfriend’s abuse they decide to take matters into their own hands. After reaching out to their father and calling child abuse prevention centers yields no results, the girls decide there’s only one thing left to do: kill their mother and use the insurance money to start over.
As the protagonists, Breslin and Henley are excellent, thanks largely in part to the strong chemistry between them. Mira Sorvino, too, is well cast, as watching Linda relapse again and again is truly pathetic. Over and over she promises her daughters she will change, but despite her sincere efforts she fails not only her children but also herself. While on the surface the film seems to depict two cold-blooded killers, it proves to paint a portrait of two tortured girls desperate to create better lives for themselves. The depiction of other teenagers in the film is interesting as well. Word of the girls’ plan to murder their mother gets around their high school months before it actually happens, and not one student thinks to report it to the authorities. Rather, it is something of a running joke, just another piece of gossip that everyone seems to be in on. Thinking up ways to kill Linda and make it look like an accident becomes a game for the girls and their friends, as is depicted in a darkly humorous montage set to St. Vincent’s “Cruel,” a song almost too perfect for this film (“Forgive the kids, for they don't know how to live / Run the alleys casually cruel”). Here, it becomes painfully apparent just how damaged Sandra and Beth are.
While they are initially relieved after the murder is committed and they are able to leave their mother’s house, the girls are not entirely remorseless, nor are they able to forget their old lives completely. Even though Linda is gone, the mark she left on her children—particularly Sandra, the older of the two—remains. They keep up appearances at school, but at home they are the same tortured children, just in different ways than before.
The film tries to use special effects to create fantasy sequences in which the girls imagine a perfect mother, but these feel out of place and don’t quite work. The behavior of the other teenagers—who should be much more well-adjusted than Sandra or Beth—is often ridiculous, as they encourage the girls to go through with the murder and even treat them like celebrities in the aftermath. Still, after viewing the film I looked into the true story on which it is based and was surprised to find just how closely the movie adheres to its source material. As in the film, it was almost a year before a classmate finally reported the real Sandra and Beth Andersen to the police.
The film raises some interesting questions: were the girls really driven to the point that they truly believed there was no other way out? Why did no one respond to their cries for help? Why didn’t the hundreds of kids who knew what was happening say anything? Was it out of fear? Apathy? Yes, Sandra and Beth Andersen killed their mother, but are they the only ones to blame? Despite some odd stylistic choices, the film succeeds in taking a closer look inside the psyche of a broken family.
Grade: B+
While they are initially relieved after the murder is committed and they are able to leave their mother’s house, the girls are not entirely remorseless, nor are they able to forget their old lives completely. Even though Linda is gone, the mark she left on her children—particularly Sandra, the older of the two—remains. They keep up appearances at school, but at home they are the same tortured children, just in different ways than before.
The film tries to use special effects to create fantasy sequences in which the girls imagine a perfect mother, but these feel out of place and don’t quite work. The behavior of the other teenagers—who should be much more well-adjusted than Sandra or Beth—is often ridiculous, as they encourage the girls to go through with the murder and even treat them like celebrities in the aftermath. Still, after viewing the film I looked into the true story on which it is based and was surprised to find just how closely the movie adheres to its source material. As in the film, it was almost a year before a classmate finally reported the real Sandra and Beth Andersen to the police.
The film raises some interesting questions: were the girls really driven to the point that they truly believed there was no other way out? Why did no one respond to their cries for help? Why didn’t the hundreds of kids who knew what was happening say anything? Was it out of fear? Apathy? Yes, Sandra and Beth Andersen killed their mother, but are they the only ones to blame? Despite some odd stylistic choices, the film succeeds in taking a closer look inside the psyche of a broken family.
Grade: B+
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