Brothers and Sisters

Prompted by the terrible murders of 'The Yorkshire Ripper' (and made before he was caught), this examination of contemporary sexual politics and violence is too simplistic by half. After a prostitute is murdered, two brothers (one apparently right wing, one left) are suspected, and the film investigates their attitudes towards women as police proceedings continue. Despite its obvious sincerity and ambitions, the film is wrecked by its half-hearted adherence to the thriller format (neither implicating its audience in the sadistic impulses behind voyeurism and film-watching, nor denying them that excitement by avoiding thriller-style scenes), by its schematic approach towards characterisation, and by its complacent sense of male guilt, simply asserting (in too direct a way) that all men are responsible for violence towards women.