Perfect monsters

'Perfect Sisters' is similar to a Lifetime movie, but not the secretly-entertaining kind. More like the trashy and poorly-made Lifetime movies that make you feel plenty ashamed for watching, but fail to deliver on the second half of the phrase "guilty pleasure". It's based on a true story (naturally); and I'm not really sure what the filmmakers were thinking when they decided to turn this tragic event (the 2003 murder of Brampton, Ontario resident Linda Andersen by her own daughters) into a movie.

Was I supposed to feel sorry for these horrid, sociopathic girls? It's sad that they suffered abuse by their stepfather(s?), but that's no excuse for DROWNING. THEIR. MOTHER. IN. THE. BATHTUB (in the movie, their "drunken" mother -- as portrayed by Mira Sorvino -- comes across as more pathetic than anything else). The sisters in 'Perfect Sisters' show no remorse for their actions; I didn't feel bad for them in the least after their crime was finally uncovered.

And what was the deal with the ridiculous fantasy sequences, where the pink and sparkly "vision" of a woman (also played by Sorvino) kept appearing to talk to the girls as they gazed back at her in wonder; I guess they were supposed to be envisioning their ideal mom? Those scenes were not only stupid (the sisters simultaneously had the *same* fantasy? really?), they very much detracted from the rest of the movie... which was already bad to begin with.

Based on those sequences, and especially on the film's laughably dramatic final scene (where the sisters are shown screaming and wailing as they're pulled apart from one another in the courthouse after they receive their so-called sentence), it seemed like the filmmakers actually *were* aiming for a sympathetic viewpoint toward the two girls. And if that's the case, all I can say is EPIC FAIL. (2/10)

2/10