They blow the “meet cute” in the Argentine action comedy “(Un) Lucky Sisters,” and its pretty much all downhill from there in this short but not remotely brisk tale of two disconnected half-sisters who stumble into their late father’s secret stash of (Euro) cash.
Screenwriter Mariano Vera has “flat broke” Jésica (Sofia Morandi) and Ángela (Leticia Siciliani) sort-of acquainted and aware of each other’s existence when they meet in the morgue where their father’s body lies.
Somebody reached out to somebody else on social media once, but somebody was too stuck-up to be bothered with that. So there’s no comical “shock” in meeting to ID a dead-man’s body.
Ángela had something of a childhood with him, but “hasn’t seen Dad in 15 years.” Jesse, whose mom keeps their packed apartment in their name by giving Lamaze classes, was more of a one-night thing with the womanizer his daughter never knew.
As Dad was a “doctor” and a politically connected “facilitator,” broke fast-food trainee Jesse is quick with a “Do we get anything (in Spanish, subtitled, or dubbed into English)?”Ángela and her father’s secretary make Jesse the odd woman out in their discussions of the dead man’s one real asset — his swank “smart apartment.”
As Jesse doesn’t intend to be cut out, she insists on visiting the place, and then staying there. Ángela, struggling to get out of a relationship with a “ets settle down” security guard, reluctantly agrees.
That’s when they find a control setting in the apartment that reveals a hide-away wall covering “a buttload of Euros.” One half-sister is cautious, fearful and reluctant to touch it.
“It must belong to SOMEbody!”
Jesse is ready to stuff her pockets, start dining out and dive into a shopping spree.
There are references to endemic corruption and bureaucratic inefficiency in “this country” in a film that suggests bribery — in Euros — is a way of life and the courts swallow up any inheritance by taking “years” to settle estates, especially ones engulfed in scandal.
The story is framed within an unexciting moment of the two on the run from “cops and mobsters” with a backpack and suitcase full of cash, so SOMEbody wasn’t careful enough.
Director Fabiana Tiscornia does a decent job of setting up the threats — two mayors who are a little too familiar at the funeral, a sketchy TV “journalist” and highrise penthouse neighbor with two over-decorated Pomeranians who seems to know there’s “something” in that penthouse with his while.
The leads are well-cast, with their bickering making the “sisters by different mothers” sale.
“This isn’t OUR life!”
“Then whose is it?”
But there’s nothing original, funny or exciting in any of this. Even the tense moments are undercut by “she’s just imagining making a break for it” scripted missteps.
The pacing is slow-footed, the comical “problem solving” their way out of this windfall dilemma wholly unsatisfying.
Theses sisters may be “lucky” to have each other to go through this with, but they were pretty unlucky in the drab story they’re trapped in.
Rating: TV-14, pretty tame
Cast: Sofia Morandi and Leticia Siciliani.
Credits: Directed by Fabiana Tiscornia, scripted by Mariano Vera. A Netflix release.
Running time: 1:23


