Zus & Zo (review)

Somewhere in the very progressive Netherlands, three catty sisters get a bombshell dropped on them by their gay brother: He's getting married. To a girl. As their own mother calls the sisters "selfish bitches," and they clearly are, it's no surprise that it's not their brother's well-being that concerns them... it's the fact that he and his new wife-to-be are planning to run off with the family fortune, currently locked up in a Portuguese beachfront hotel but easily converted to cash. Can they stop baby bro in time to save their inheritance? Will they all stop sleeping with one another's husbands? Will they ever quite their whining? This is the kind of flick about unhappy yuppies -- among the sisters are a successful artist, a successful writer, and a successful humanitarian -- bemoaning the states of their perfectly comfortable lives that plays well at film festivals around the world, as this one did. But somehow, a little something more substantial should be expected from a nominee for a 2002 Oscar in the Best Foreign Language Film slot. Scattered among the annoying angst are a few brief moments of amusement, but this is little more than an episode of Thirtysomething in the 21st Century.