Movie Review: Brothers (2009)
Excellent performances run in to a story that takes things a bit too far
Photo: Lionsgate
Sam (Tobey Maguire) is the good brother. He followed in his father's footsteps and joined the Marines. He married Grace (Natalie Portman) and has two young daughters. Tommy (Jake Gyllenhaal) is the bad brother. He just got out of jail and enjoys a good drink (or six) at the local bar. Jim Sheridan's Brothers, a remake of Susanne Bier's 2004 film, uses the differences between the two siblings to establish a setting for a devastating domestic melodrama highly proficient in telling its story, but it will send you home in a heap.
The cast includes Tobey Maguire, Jake Gyllenhaal, Natalie Portman, Navid Negahban and Bailee Madison. For more information on this film including pictures, trailers and a detailed synopsis choose from the following menu.
Review
"Brothers" is a Lionsgate release, directed by Jim Sheridan and is rated R for language and some disturbing violent content. The running time is 1 hour 50 minutes.
Now don't worry, I'm not telling you anything the trailers don't already tell you. However, Lionsgate is doing its best to hide the fact this film has anything to do with war. Fortunately, while war is the stimulus for the story, it isn't the end-all focal point. Then again, it's not the horror film the trailer makes it out to be either. Confused?
What Brothers is, is a conundrum. How important is it for you to see actors performing at their best in a film that will emotionally wreck you with no exceptions? And I don't mean this lightly. Portman, Maguire and Gyllenhaal are all at the top of their games, but at what cost? What is the reason to see this movie? There are plenty of downer films that are worth watching, but many are entertaining over the course of their duration, or at least thought provoking. Brothers brings nothing new to the table and isn't entertaining in the general sense of the word.
The film runs into trouble in its efforts to build up dramatic tension during Sam's Afghan imprisonment and torture sessions as well as at home when we meet the brothers' father played by Sam Shepard.
While captured by Taliban, Sam undergoes a series of horrors culminating in a horrific moment that stays with him throughout the rest of the film, but the fact it's gimmicky and unnecessary destroys it's overall impact. It was at this moment I checked out of this film emotionally and was merely sitting back and watching the performances.
As for Sam Shepard, his performance as the boys' father isn't the problem as much as the hackneyed dialogue he's given makes every time he opens his mouth increasingly silly. Much of this can be laid at the feet of his drinking problem, but to that extent what kind of story is Sheridan trying to tell? Brothers gets lost in all of its tangents and none of them ever seem to come together to tell a 100-percent cohesive story.
All while watching I kept reminding myself the title of the film was Brothers and trying to put together a consistent thru-line that would justify the title, but I couldn't. While not a war film per se, there is certainly an emphasis on the effects of war on both the soldier and his/her family. This film is also about forgiveness, which could extend to the father's drinking problem among several other transgressions on display here, but at some point you have to stop forgiving and begin taking responsibility, something only one character in this film ever truly does.
I rarely like giving film's positive reviews simply for having excellent performances while the film itself didn't necessarily work for me, but I find myself straddling that line with this one. Like I said the three leads are spectacular. Tobey Maguire is a hard person for me to take seriously when his characters go to dark places, but with this one he really nails it, particularly in the film's final moments. Portman too, hits all the right notes and Gyllenhaal's performance and character are the most fleshed out and perfect parts of the film. A final exchange between Maguire and Gyllenhaal is certain to hit many moviegoers quite hard. It was the stand out moment for me.
While I have my doubts about the film itself I applaud the efforts of those involved. That's the best I can do.
Links from Other Sites You May Like
Showing 8 Comments
~ PLEASE NOTE ~
If, in any way, your comment is an attack on the author of this post or a previous commenter, your comment will be deleted without question.
Add a New Comment |
Click to Read Our Commenting Rules & Guidelines
I absolutely loved it. It might be my favorite film of the year so far.
@Kevin: Care to elaborate?
I would say that I'm a big fan of character based movies and character studies. It did a great job of showing the impact that one particular event can have on 3 different people. In that sense, it is a character study of three wildly different personalities and the changes they undergo. The three leads did a great job of depicting these changes. The cross-cutting between home and Afghanistan worked pretty well for me. I felt they showed just enough of the torture/war sequences so that it got the point across without being repetitive.
I also found the two young girls to be fantastic. They did a really good job of showing resentment and acceptance. Young kids catch on to things quicker than most people think, and the filmmakers realized this. I didn't really buy them as the daughters of Tobey and Natalie, though (appearance-wise).
On a personal note, I could identify with the relationship between Gyllenhaal and his father. It helps that I like Jake as an actor, and don't like Tobey all that much. They really had me pulling for Jake's character to achieve some sort of redemption and I think he got that.
Sometimes I think a good way to judge a movie is how many times you look at your watch/cell phone during the movie. I didn't do this once during this film. I was fully immersed in the drama of it. This is saying a lot considering the theater I went to has really uncomfortable seats and it was pretty crowded.
9/10
I shouldn't say anything since I didn't and won't see this movie; too much post traumatic stress of my own, but…it's clearly about how war sucks (don't we all know that already?), messing up the "good" son, and making the son who didn't serve look good. Maybe Natalie Portman should have gotten together with the non-military brother all along? Just because the movie came out somewhat fuzzy doesn't mean it's not kneejerk Hollywood establishment anti-military propaganda. These actors are polishing up their Hollywood in-crowd credibility, so they can continue to find work.
By the way, there is no "war" in Afghanistan. I don't know how to describe it except some kind of forward basing excercise with occasional patrols and skirmishes.
Loved this film. It was intensely dramatic and I didn't think Tobey Maguire would be able to act in the depth that he did. I read somewhere that he spent a great deal of time with war veterans to prepare for this role, and I have to say that it really comes through in his performance. Hopefully he gets an oscar nomination already!
Maguire’s character being a veteran of the war in Afghanistan is not so much a political statement. It is merely an attempt to make the film more relevant to a modern American audience. The film is more about family issues than anything. I thought it was very well directed and the acting was superb.
I totally agree…. while the film tried as hard as possible to make the title work and make it relevent, I found myself wishing the title was something else since the movie wound up revolving around Sam and the aftermath of him being a torture victim at war. I too find Tobey macguire hard to take seriously and though Gyllenhaal's character did make up for most of the silliness, I found the dialogue extremely cheesy and unworthy of such great young actors. The 3 leads did execute what they were given with great commitment though, so i'm left a little stumped here…. definitely not what I was expecting out of this movie.
I have to say I just rented this film today and I thought it was fairly decent. I think the performance by Jake was the life line that saved this film…. However I do applaud Tobey's efforts because I usually have a hard time taking him seriously as an actor but with this part he nailed it and the weight loss definitely helped…. I wish the writers would have explored either Jake and Tobeys relationship or Jake and Natalies relationship its like they couldn't decide so they kind of skimmed over all of them and so by the end you have no idea who to root for………Also the title bothered me…. and I think they knew it wasnt about the brothers which is why during the climax of the film they kept saying IM YOUR BROTHER it's like come on we know you guys are brothers…… but Jim will always get an A for effort … anyone that can make fifty cent look like a decent actor on screen gets my vote