Film review: The party’s over for Amy Poehler and Tina Fey in miscast Sisters dud

While the tremendous wit and chemistry of Tina Fey and Poehler Amy is unquestionable, the big-screen meeting of the former Saturday Night Live Weekend Update hosts feels overwhelming and mismatched.

Tina Fey, left, and Amy Poehler in Sisters. Universal Pictures via AP Photo

Sisters

Director: Jason Moore

Starring: Tina Fey, Amy Poehler, Maya Rudolph, Dianne Weist

Two and a half stars

In Sisters, Tina Fey and Amy Poehler attempt to transplant the most teenage of comedy genres – that of party animals and casual hook-ups – onto characters approaching middle age.

They are a long way from your usual house-party movie stars – your Jon Belushis and Zac Efrons – and that’s the point. Trying on ill-fitting dresses for a planned big bash, they request something “a little less Forever 21 and a little more Suddenly 42".

The film, written by Paula Pell (like Poehler and Fey, also a Saturday Night Live veteran) and directed by Jason Moore (Pitch Perfect), is a brazenly crude farce about arrested development that doesn't so much seek to rise above its ludicrous absurdity as much as ride it out.

It's a bumpy ride. While the tremendous wit and chemistry of Fey and Poehler is unquestionable, the big-screen meeting of the former Weekend Update hosts feels overwhelming and ­mismatched.

For starters, it’s hard to imagine either being from Orlando. That’s the hometown of Maura (Poehler) and Kate Ellis (Fey), whose parents (Dianne Wiest and James Brolin) are selling their childhood home. This brings out oddly passionate feelings in Kate, a single mother and unemployed beautician.

Fey, the poster woman of quick-witted comic smarts, is here cast against type. She's the promiscuous, party-loving mess, while Poehler is the responsible, earnest career woman. It's a miscalculation that does more to doom Sisters than anything else.

Fey and Poehler are, however, extremely game and up for any silliness or embarrassment if it gets a laugh. With their parents’ house sold, they nostalgically sift through the relics from their 1980s-adorned bedroom and decide to invite their high school friends to a good old-fashioned party.

They are mostly parents who no longer know how to let loose, but as the night goes on, a wildly freewheeling party is unleashed that, naturally, spins out of control. There are handful of solid supporting turns, including Maya Rudolph (as Kate's nemesis), John Cena (in his second fine comedy cameo of the year, after Amy Schumer's Trainwreck) and John Leguizamo. But Bobby Moynihan's sweaty nerd steals the movie.

There are laughs, for sure – but as is so often the case with Fey's movie choices, an opportunity has been missed. It's becoming increasingly clear that if she's ever to star in a movie as good as the best – she's done (from 30 Rock to her book, Bossypants) she's going to have to write it ­herself.

• Sisters is in cinemas now