Movie Review: MY SISTER’S BONES

By ABBIE BERNSTEIN / Staff Writer

Posted: January 30th, 2026 / 09:39 PM

MY SISTER'S BONES movie poster | ©2026 Quiver Distribution

Rating: Not Rated
Stars: Jenny Seagrove, Anna Friel, Ben Miles, David Bradley, Emily Butcher, Lovi Poe, Maggie Steed, Olga Kurylenko, Ankido Hussen
Writer: Naomi Gibney, based on the novel by Nuala Ellwood
Director: Heidi Greensmith
Distributor: Quiver Distribution
Release Date: January 30, 2026

MY SISTER’S BONES successfully and delicately keeps us guessing through its third act as to exactly what we’re watching – straight drama, murder mystery, ghost story?

We’re in an English seaside factory town that features some wonderful two-story houses. Inside one of these, an old woman – we’ll learn this is Gillian Rafter (Maggie Steed) hears a noise upstairs in her home. She goes upstairs to investigate, and then fatally falls back to the first floor, evidently pushed.

Meanwhile, the Iraq war is raging in full calamitous force. British news reporter Kate Rafter (Jenny Seagrove) is there to cover the strife but is also personally trying to protect a local little boy, Nidal (Ankido Hussen).

When Kate is back in England, reluctantly speaking to a patient therapist (Olga Kurylenko), it is evident that something happened to Nidal.

Kate is in her hometown to attend Gillian’s funeral, although she shows up late to the church, much to the ire of her younger sister Sally (Anna Friel).

The siblings aren’t on good terms, with Sally resenting Kate for leaving (among other things), and Kate resenting Sally for lifelong disapproval. Sally is alcoholic, which may be why her daughter Hannah (Emily Butcher) headed to Australia when she turned eighteen six years ago.

Sally’s second husband Paul (Ben Miles) is the voice of reason and family peacekeeper, previously a moderator between Sally and Gillian, and still a go-between for the two sisters, as well as his wife and stepdaughter.

Kate hasn’t been to her childhood home since she left a decade ago. She’s suffering PTSD from her time in Iraq, and Paul expresses concern that Kate staying in the house may trigger more disturbing memories (to say nothing of infuriating Sally). But Kate is insistent.

Kate sees Nidal, even though he can’t possibly be there. She also thinks she sees a little boy in the yard. Are either of these real? Both? Neither?

Screenwriter Nancy Gibney and director Heidi Greensmith adapt Nuala Ellwood’s novel with tamped-down grace and commendable pacing. There are a lot of secrets to uncover, and they are revealed in a way that holds our attention without making it feel like things are being piled on.

Seagrove gives us a protagonist who is steely and stoic, though filled with self-doubt. Friel keeps Sally’s anguish and fury on simmer, so that we can comprehend how she makes it through the day. Miles exudes reassurance and Kurylenko is properly therapeutic.

By the time we reach the end of MY SISTER’S BONES, we get answers. In lesser hands, this could easily have played out as something far more conventional and predictable, but instead, it’s meditative, with suspense and some genuine emotion.

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An effective cross-genre British drama

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