Hallmark Channel
Valentine’s Day this year is long gone, and February is nearing an end, so that means Hallmark Channel’s ‘Loveuary’ is also at an end with Sisterhood, Inc., a delightful film that’s more about sisterly love — or lack thereof — than it is about the standard rom-com formula.
Sisterhood, Inc. stars Rachel Leigh Cook as high-powered businesswoman Megan, creator of an app that revolutionized how people scheduled their days. But with a downturn in business, the CEO is always the one on the chopping block and her board has lost faith in her, voting to fire her from the company she started. (There may also be a little shady nepotism involved as the head of the board’s daughter is going to replace Megan.) Unsure of what to do with her life, Megan is dragged to a family dinner — since she left home to attend graduate school, Megan’s relationship with her sister, mother and stepfather has been at arm’s length — where she can’t help but notice how mother Lois coddles the almost 30-year-old Izzy, who still lives at home and basically has her life taken care of by Lois and Ken. Megan has always felt a distance from her mom since her dad died, and the two have such deep hurt about his passing that neither of them have ever discussed their feeling and to Megan, Lois just moved on with Ken and they formed their own little family unit with Izzy, who never really knew her father. But seeing how Izzy is babied pushes all of Megan’s buttons and she lets them all know how she feels about it — there could have been a little alcohol involved as well — and she storms out.
The next day Izzy pays Megan a visit and while Megan tries to apologize, Izzy tells her she was right, she does need guidance in her life which prompts Megan to come up with a new business idea — life coaching by committee. Izzy agrees to let Megan manage her life, and Megan creates a board of directors of people they know who can guide the various aspects of her life to achieve her goals — namely to be able to afford things she wants, and a boyfriend who wears shoes. Simple enough. Megan brings on pizza parlor owner Frank, for whom Izzy delivers (and usually ends up with a parking ticket), to help manage her money, former babysitter Patsy, to guide her love life, fashionista Jila to spruce up her wardrobe, while Megan takes on the task of getting Izzy a job. To keep things balanced, they need one outsider who has no connection and that task falls to a college professor named Dominic, someone whom Izzy had just happened to come across on a streaming video platform, and who was really the only person who applied for the unpaid job. Rounding out the group is Megan’s longtime assistant Curtis. With their help, Izzy almost immediately gets a job at an art gallery, has a new wardrobe, a new boyfriend and an apartment of her own (paid for by Megan for the first six months until Izzy gets her finances in order), but they have purposely kept Lois out of the mix so she didn’t taint the results of this experiment. As things progressed, Megan believes she can build a whole new business with this work in progress and has an offer to pitch the idea to a very wealthy investor — but things begin to go south as Izzy begins to revert to her old lifestyle, dumping her boyfriend (admittedly, he was obnoxious), quitting her job and trashing her apartment by having a party to which the police — and Megan — are called. Megan is also beginning to feel a spark with Dominic, which she feels is unprofessional under the circumstances, and Lois finds out what’s been going on, hurt that she was left out of everything. Even worse, she gets the offer to create the business but a press release is leaked before she can tell Izzy and her board, making them all think she was just using them to get ahead herself. Can Megan pull everything together before she loses everything, including Dominic, again?
Hallmark has done a great job with their ‘Loveuary’ series of movies, and Sisterhood, Inc. is one of the best of the four that have aired in February. This one bucks the usual rom-com trend of the story being focused around the two attractive leads who you know have to fall in love right before the credits roll, instead putting the sisterly relationship front and center. For the longest time, it doesn’t even seem like Megan and Dominic are going to kindle a romance as the focus is on Izzy and Carson (but Carson is made to be so far out of Izzy’s league that it would never work). The bulk of the story is the relationship between Megan and Izzy, with some delightful input from Lois, and that sets this movie apart from the rest of the Loveuary films. Of course the feelings to begin to develop between Megan and Dominic, but a kiss that comes much earlier in the story than usual for a Hallmark movie almost derails everything as he is supposed to be an impartial observer in this experiment with Izzy, so Megan has to shut that down real quick … which leads to some regret as things begin to quickly fall apart. The screenplay by Hilary Galanoy and Elizabeth Hackett is clever and funny, but it has some real heart and authentic emotions making Sisterhood, Inc. a real winner. Director Lesley Demetriades also does a great job guiding the cast and using the locations very well (unlike some films of recent vintage, the outsides of the buildings actually matcht the interiors). All in all, a very well-crafted and enjoyable movie.
Hallmark Channel
The cast is also excellent and stacked with some pretty familiar faces. Rachel Leigh Cook, who also executive produced the movie, is terrific as the career-driven Megan, nicely balancing her focus on business with her more personal interactions with Izzy, Lois and the members of the board. She could have very easily become intolerable because she is so by-the-numbers with her work, but with the solid writing and her skillful performance, even when Megan pushes everyone away Cook still manages to make the viewer empathize and sympathize with her. She also has great chemistry with Daniella Monet (who was also great in Holiday Crashers), who also could have been an annoying slacker character but with her wonderful comic timing and heartfelt moments with Megan as the two reconnect, the performance makes the film all the more enjoyable. Judy Kain is also terrific as mother Lois. She, as much as Izzy, doesn’t want to ‘cut the apron strings’, and she brings a lot of humor to her moments but she also conveys Lois’ hurt when she learns about Megan’s project with Izzy, and she has a nice moment with Cook near the end as they finally begin to rebuild their own relationship.
Leonidas Gulaptis is great as Dominic because he never makes it seem like he and Megan are going to become an item. As he fulfills his position on the board, he does keep things professional and even when the two do have some moments together they just seem like co-workers. He does begin to let down his guard after Megan calls to help with a plumbing issue, but again he has to rein it back in as they are still in business together. But he and Cook do give subtle vibes that something is brewing, making the viewer root for their romance. Steve Schirripa, Jackie Hoffman and Rosa Gilmore all add some wonderful moments as the various board members, while Simon Belz acts as Megan’s own Jiminy Cricket with his words of advice (from his mother), and Adam Grupper has some humorous moments as Ken.
Even though Sisterhood, Inc. is part of the Loveuary series of movies, it really has nothing to do with Valentine’s Day which makes it a delightful rom-com that is more about a sisterly-bond than the romance, making it a movie that can be enjoyed any time of the year. A great cast, script, direction and overall production make this one a sheer delight.
Sisterhood, Inc. has a run time of 1 hour 24 minutes, and is rated TV-G. The film is streaming on Hallmark+.
Preview – Sisterhood, Inc.
Hallmark Channel