Leave it to cleavage
>> The Banger Sisters is an insipid tale
of bygone groupies

by CHRIS BARRY

It might make you laugh, it might make you cry, but most likely, it will just make you want to barf. Former SCTV writer Bob Dolman’s directorial debut, The Banger Sisters, is a flat, predictable feel-good movie that even a first-rate actor like Susan Sarandon can’t rescue from its insipidness. But it’s also a movie with a message: be true to who you are, ’cuz if you lose your integrity then you’d better be prepared to suffer the consequences. And I, for one, would like to say a big thank you to Hollywood for teaching us all about the meaning of integrity. Certainly there’s no lack of it in the film industry.

In this stinker, Sarandon and Goldie Hawn play two former rock ’n’ roll groupies, each suffering through their respective mid-life crisis. Hawn’s character, Suzette, is an ageing, free-spirited barmaid, who, after getting fired from her gig at the Whiskey à Go-Go in L.A., decides to track down her old partner in groupiedom, Vinnie (Sarandon), in the hope that maybe Vinnie will be able to help her make sense of this crazy thing we call life.

But, unlike Suzette, Vinnie is no longer the fun-loving bone-chomper she was in the ’60s. Now she’s an uptight suburban society hag with two spoiled teenage daughters and a husband with political aspirations, her days of riding Jim Morrison’s snake a secret to everyone in her new home of Phoenix. But guess what? She’s unhappy, unfulfilled. And when she learns that everyone in her family sees her as the boring straightass she’s become, she defiantly takes a cue from her old friend, starts dressing like Pat Benatar, and goes about reclaiming herself as a person.

Needless to say, Suzette also learns a thing or two about herself over the course of the film. And what does Suzette learn? Well, she learns to accept herself for what she is, and that maybe she isn’t as big a loser as she thought she was. Maybe she’s even capable of love. Enough said.

Oh, wait a second, maybe not. Did I mention that this film has an uplifting ending?

The Banger Sisters opens Friday, Sept. 20:

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