Brothers (2009)

BROTHERS

DIRECTED BY: JIM SHERIDAN
WRITTEN BY: DAVID BENIOFF
ORIGINAL SCRIPT BY: SUSANNE BIER & ANDERS THOMAS JENSEN (BRODRE)
OVERALL SCORE: 7.00/10

When Sam (Tobey Maguire), a Captain in the marines, has his helicopter shot down in Afghanistan he is presumed dead. As his family absorbs the shock back him, his wildchild brother, Tommy (Jake Gyllenhaal) steps up to be a father figure for Sam's kids, and help support Sam's aching wife, Grace (Natalie Portman). Tommy and Grace grow close, almost too close, but the return of Sam may shake things up more than they ever imagined.

While watching Brothers I was left with two overbearing thoughts: 1) My god could the commercials have shown more of the ending? and 2) It's nice to see Tobey Maguire return to pre-Spiderman acting form. Let's be honest Tobey Maguire is no acting mastermind, much of which I nominate to his rather high pitched voice, but here he's asked to deliver a dark, borderline schizophrenic, performance, which he manages to handle with solid ease. The rest of the cast handles their performances with great respect to the original Danish film, and seem to care about the message being sent. Unfortunately though, there always seems to be something missing.

Let's be honest following the critical disaster that was Sheridan's Get Rich or Die Tryin', the man needed a solid critical comeback. Perhaps that's why one of the best character people in the business went for a "safe" remake. Sure the film deals with harsh materials, but he would really have to screw it up in order for it to be lambasted critically (despite it receiving mixed reviews). What allows Brothers to work is Sheridan's sense of character, the development of them, and how they deal with certain situations. The growth of Tommy, and subsequent descent of Sam, is believable because it develops over time, through painful situations. There's no random cut to a new personality trait that randomly occurred, it all goes with the flow.

Unfortunately though the writing of David Benioff (whose been a mixed bag of greatness and disaster) always seems a step ahead of the emotion. In the beginning this is perfectly fine, as we assume it'll all tie itself together in the end, but it never really does. This ultimately leads to a dark, and entrancing finale, that should have been more impactful than it really was. Much of this is caused by repetitive dialogue, and what seemed to me to be an abrupt cut in order to hasten the pace for the big moment. It still works, but I felt a bit underwhelmed, despite some great emotion performances given by Portman, Maguire, and Gyllenhaal. The ending also leaves quite a bit unanswered, but does give the viewer some minor closure, which gives it a passing grade. As a blogging buddy of mine, MadHatter, pointed out, you can start off slow and hit the ending, and be loved, but no matter how you start you can't fumble the ending. Brothers may be an example of this far more than it cares to be.

Though don't let that discourage you. The ending isn't all bad, and there's a lot of little things to appreciate from this latest Sheridan outing. Just don't expect to be waving any flags of perfection. Oh, and if you can, avoid the trailers for this movie as much as possible (they pretty much show nothing but the finale 45minutes of the film).

While it's by no means perfect, Brothers boasts some great performances from its leads, and manages to skate by on the strength of the original story.