Soap opera feel drags on erotic ‘Beloved Sisters’

Right now there’s a lot of chatter about the cinema’s obligations to historical accuracy. Does “Selma” distort Lyndon Johnson’s role in civil rights? Does “American Sniper” sanitize the Iraq War’s most lethal sharpshooter?

Whatever the answer to those questions, we can conclude that the farther we get from the historical period in question, the less the discrepancies seem to matter. Which is why few people will fret over whether the historical characters in “Beloved Sisters” actually got it on as a threesome.

There’s no definitive proof that the German writer Friedrich Schiller was snuggling up with his wife’s sister, but this movie certainly likes the idea. In the film, set in the late 18th century, Schiller (played by the callow Florian Stetter) meets future wife Charlotte (Henriette Confurius) when he is still a threadbare playwright.

Charlotte has the luxury of marrying for love, because her older sister Caroline (Hannah Herzsprung) has already married for wealth, thus propping up the fortunes of Charlotte and the sisters’ shrewd mother (Claudia Messner). But the sisters are both close with the writer, and his erotic attention is clearly divided.

Charlotte is less formed and apparently somewhat uncomplicated, but Caroline is a complex woman, and a talented writer herself. She writes a serial novel that Schiller publishes in his magazine, a story that becomes the talk of the literary world for a few months.

The casting itself tips the balance in Caroline’s favor: Herzsprung, an actress of hooded eyes and smoldering demeanor, is a richer performer than the out-pointed Confurius.

With its heavy-breathing material, “Beloved Sisters” has possibilities, but veteran director Dominik Graf swerves recklessly between the arthouse and soap opera. The thing stretches out to 170 minutes, which makes for a lot of pretty costumes and houses, but not much momentum.

I ended up enjoying the movie, in part because Graf arranges the entire story around letter-writing. He’s surely cribbing from Francois Truffaut’s “Two English Girls,” another love-triangle period piece, which also featured actors addressing the camera as they narrate their passionate letters to one another. The device gives “Beloved Sisters” an antique quality that lifts it from the humdrum realm of the average miniseries.

“Beloved Sisters” (2 1/2 stars)

A bit of erotic speculation about the great German writer Schiller, who might have been as much in love with both wife and her sister. Some costume-drama appeal in this movie’s 170 minutes, although things get soap opera-ish at times. In German, with English subtitles.

Rating: Not rated; probably R for nudity, subject matter

Showing: Grand Illusion