It plays more like a traditional melodrama than the Susanne Bier film that inspired it, but Jim Sheridan's Brothers benefits from rock-solid performances by its three leads.
It plays more like a traditional melodrama than the Susanne Bier film that inspired it, but Jim Sheridan's Brothers benefits from rock-solid performances by its three leads.
Jim Sheridan's film, adapted from Susanne Bier's 2004 movie, concerns Captain Sam Cahill (Tobey Maguire), a Marine who receives orders to ship out for yet another tour of duty in Afghanistan. But before he leaves his supportive wife, Grace (Natalie Portman), and his two elementary-school-age daughters, Sam picks up his black sheep brother, Tommy (Jake Gyllenhaal), who has finished a prison stretch for robbing a bank. While overseas, Sam's aircraft gets shot down and he's thought dead. Back home,
irresponsible Tommy gets his act together in order to be an anchor for Grace and the girls, and the two grow emotionally -- though not physically -- close. As the family finally begins to make peace with their grief, soldiers rescue POW Sam and he returns home. Sam's experiences overseas have caused him such emotional turmoil, he has a difficult time adjusting to civilian life, and soon his fear and paranoia manifest themselves in the form of jealousy for his brother's relationship with his wife. Sam Shepard and Mare Winningham co-star as the brothers' father and stepmother. ~ Perry Seibert, Rovi
Brothers, the new home-from-the-war film, written by David Benioff and directed by Jim Sheridan, has been made with obvious devotion and sincerity, and I wish I could take it seriously.
After watching this movie, I had what you might call Portman Traumautic Stress Disorder, a condition that leaves you twitchy, irritable, and in need of a well-acted light comedy.
Tobey Maguire's jaw seems squarer, his eyes electrified and - as Sam's features harden - like Robert De Niro circa "The Deer Hunter." When Sam snaps - all snarls, snot and spit - Maguire and Jim Sheridan place you in his percussive, throbbing psyche.
Quite literally a kitchen sink drama, Brothers eschews the returning soldier platitudes as well as the conventional love triangle. Instead Sheridan sticks to the characters, letting the story unfold through some truly exceptional performances.
A compassionate crafting of lost and found families in wartime, but a seemingly self-censored scenario with the US military establishment and its combat rationale as the troubling invisible elephant in the room.
Director Sheridan effectively contrasts the domestic character-driven drama set in suburban America with genuinely harrowing and authentic war sequences.
If you like to have your heart wrenched out in the cinema, this is for you. Even though it's a remake of the outstanding 2004 Danish original directed by Suzanne Bier (released here in 2006), Brothers carries a mighty payload of drama
Responsibility, resentment, jealousy and guilt are the film's main themes sharing with us raw emotional chaos at the highest level. It's hard-hitting and involving
Despite strong performances from the leads, when it comes to pacing and power, it's the Danish original that edges it. Still, a sturdy and affecting remake that brings a powerful story to an even wider audience.
An incredibly well-acted movie. Toby Maguire, Natalie Portman, and Jake Gyllenhaal were all terrific. They took a cheesy, weak screenplay and made it believable and interesting. However, the movie suffers from overly simplistic pacing, cliche plot, and a lack of depth in the plot. Once again, great acting. It is good
to note that though this movie has many many flaws, there is character development that genuinely gets us invested.
Found the first half strangely unemotional (I mean, just speaking for myself, if I thought my husband had died in the war, and then he turned up, I would be in tears). But it does pick up a bit by the end. Acting is perfect. Particularly Natalie Portman and Tobey Maguire. Can't say I loved it, but it's not a preferred
genre of mine to start with. Decent storyline, but probably not a must see.
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