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The Banger Sisters teams Goldie Hawn (Town and Country) and Susan Sarandon (Twilight) in a story by Bob Dolman about two aging groupies. The ladies aren’t really related. Someone (supposedly Frank Zappa) bestowed the label “Banger Sisters” on them in their wild youth when they chased and bedded a great many rock stars.

The story takes place in the present. Goldie Hawn, still dressing as though it is the 60’s, gets fired from her job as a bartender in a Hollywood bar. She decides to look up her "sister," now living in Phoenix. Along the way, in the dessert, Hawn picks up a guy dressed in a business suit, Geoffrey Rush (Quills), to help pay for gas money. Sarandon is married to a lawyer and has two daughters, Erika Christensen (Swimfan) and Eva Amurri (Sarandon's real life daughter). Her family doesn't know anything about her past. You can see what will happen miles away when the offbeat Hawn meets the strict Sarandon.

The Banger Sisters is really Goldie Hawn's film. Rush's character, who has ulterior motives in Phoenix concerning his father, isn't needed in the script, but then we haven't seen Geoffrey Rush do comedy and he does it well. Saradon starts her characterization as an uptight, environment-controlling Mom. The audience is waiting for this façade to crack, as it must, when Shawn arrives. Sarandon doesn't want to remember the wild (and fun) times of following and sleeping with rock stars, but tellingly, she hasn't thrown away her mementos.

Bob Dolman has many threads in this story but we don't get into any depth. There are amusing lines and zingers the women toss around, but these are on the surface and nothing delves beneath. The soundtrack here is rockin' but it could have been more so. One gets the feeling that The Banger Sisters would have made a good television mini-series instead of a two-hour movie. The situation deserves more time to develop. Geoffrey Rush would have more to do. The years between the girls’ last meeting and the present, or just why the two women hung together in the first place needs development. Unfortunately, much of the very slow-paced first half of the film is used up in getting Susan and Goldie together.

You have to hand it to Goldie Hawn, though, playing a role reminiscent of her daughter, Kate Hudson, in Almost Famous, Goldie lets us see the woman at her current age. Sarandon comes into her own in the last half of the film and resembles the gal from Bull Durham. This is her forte.

The Banger Sisters gives us a vanilla version of what could have been. The performances are fine but the build-up is slow to come. Dolman has a script with rock music, teen rebellion and the aging process. Quite a bit in one film and he almost pulls it off.

Copyright2002 Marie Asner
Submitted 9/24/02