Father Mother Sister Brother (M) – 111 minutes

Awkward and strained interpersonal relationships are explored by noted independent American filmmaker Jim Jarmusch, in what is termed a triptych.

It is a word that defines a work of art divided into three.

And so it is that less than a handful of key characters feature in each vignette and the camera’s intense glare focuses on the nature of their interactions.  

Jeff (Adam Driver) is driving his car in snow-laden New Jersey, with his sister Emily (Mayim Bialik) alongside. 

They haven’t seen their father (Tom Waits) for a couple of years.

His wife (their mother) has died and Emily – who is married with two children – wonders how their father has managed to survive without any appreciable income.

Jeff, who is divorced, replies that their dad has never had a real job.

Emily admits that in times past she has helped him out with money, but no longer.

Jeff has been more generous (and still is), including when their father faced a couple of "disasters".

Dad has a peaceful home that abuts a beautiful lake.

With lots of “stuff” lying around, their father appears to have messed up the place. 

Although he greets them warmly, the huge silences between them make one squirm (a deliberate device on the director's part).

Emily can’t but help notice the Rolex watch on her dad's wrist, although he claims it is fake.

Jeff comments on the dilapidated state of their father's old truck.

After the children find an excuse to leave, with Jeff thrusting money into their dad's hand, their father immediately cleans up the place.

He then heads off for a meal with a friend in a decent car, which had been covered by a tarp.

He appears to be faking his supposed financial shortcomings. 

The second canvas is set in Dublin and concerns a successful senior author and her two adult daughters.

The former (Charlotte Rampling) has written several books and lives in a well-kept period home.

She is preparing to meet her children for an afternoon tea served on fine china, as she does only once a year.

Mother makes it clear she has high expectations of how her children should conduct themselves.

She invites them to share what news they have, but there is a noteworthy formality – a stiffness – in their conversation. 

Lilith (Vicky Krieps) asks a friend, Jeanette (Sarah Greene), to drop her off at her mum’s place.

Lilith wants Jeanette to play the role of an Uber driver, so Jeanette stops the car before they arrive and Lilith repositions herself in the back seat.

Money appears to be an issue for Lilith, who asks her mother to pay for an Uber for the ride home, promising to pay her back.

Mind you, Lilith is also sporting a Rolex on her wrist, which she claims is fake.

Timothea’s (Cate Blanchett) car breaks down along the way and arrives after her sister.

She has recently been promoted at work, while Lilith also tries to share supposed good news, although we (the audience) don't buy what she is selling.

Finally, in Paris, Skye (Indya Moore) and her brother Billy (Luka Sabbat) drive to their parents’ apartment.

Skye and Billy are still processing the news that their parents died in a light plane crash.

It is clear that sister and brother are close, even if they don’t live in the same city.

Their adventurous parents’ rented apartment is now empty, but Billy opens a box of their parents’ belongings, revealing an old Rolex owned by their father.

Going through the box triggers memories before Skye and Billy drive to a storage unit.

It is filled with more material their parents' accumulated over the years, which the pair don’t know what they are going to do with.

While at the apartment, the landlord, Madame Gautier (Francoise Lebrun), drops by, telling Skye and Billy that when their parents died they owed three months’ rent.

It was the landlord that prevented the insurance company from taking the parents' goods.

Father Mother Sister Brother is a series of character studies. It is observational, with a melancholy feel.

Jarmusch has crafted the antithesis of an action film.

Instead, it has a quiet style about it and has been meticulously constructed to allow small details to carry meaning. 

In terms of motifs, I have already mentioned the references to a Rolex watch in all three episodes.

The other recurrent theme is the appearance of skateboarders in slow motion in each chapter.

What one can make of all this is open to interpretation, but Jarmusch has fun “exploiting” the discomfort of the encounters.

The performers are uniformly strong, each filling an important role.

Father Mother Sister Brother's lack of pace may be off putting to some, but that was a deliberate choice on the part of the filmmaker to give the movie a natural feel.

In closing, I make note of the evocative songs, which resonated with me, that top and tail the production. The music is by Jim Jarmusch and Anika.

Well made, Father Mother Sister Brother is a select audience film that scores a 7½ out of 10.