Nothing if not original, Werner Herzog’s Bucking Fastard casts Kate and Rooney Mara as Irish sisters who speak, think and move in unison, an impressive feat of disciplined acting that exerts its own peculiar fascination. At least for a while. Part of it is the identical outfits, a look that mixes Olsen twins with sister wives and a dash of Franciscan monk. Love the brocade granny handbags. But radical anti-fashion aside, this bizarro fable about unfulfilled love, oversized knitwear and abandoned story threads frays beyond repair, well before it reaches an abrupt and perplexing halt.
“We’re not twins, we’re sisters,” say Jean (Kate) and Joan Holbrooke (Rooney), who are introduced recounting the same dream of squawking birds from which they simultaneously awoke startled. Cue a slow pan across an aviary packed with noisy finches and parrots, a sequence that goes on long enough to suggest it means something — maybe that the sisters are caged birds destined never to be free? — though given that birds are not mentioned again, maybe not. Eventually the winged creatures are traded for a Fantastic Mr. Fox refugee, but let’s leave that for later.
Bucking Fastard
The Bottom Line
Cave of Unforgotten Dreams.
