Brothers (2009)

O Masterpiece

X Excellent

O Good

O OK

O Mediocre

O Avoid

Review by Jason Pyles / December 4, 2009

Art often is a natural reflex to turmoil. The world’s major wars have spawned several cinematic reverberations of artists’ sentiments toward those conflicts. While some films respond specifically to the wars that inspired them, “Brothers” addresses a topic that is relevant to every war: the mentally wounded soldier.

The previews suggest merely a precarious love story: A widow becomes intimately close with her brother-in-law after her husband is reportedly killed at war. But when the not-so-deceased husband returns home many months later, familial complications ensue.

We saw a similar story line in 2001 with Michael Bay’s much lesser movie, “Pearl Harbor.” But the updated version that is “Brothers” is based on a 2004 Danish film called “Brodre.” And if memory serves me, the mistakenly deceased lovers’ triangle conundrum seems faintly Shakespearean. In any case, it’s an old, familiar story that’s reliable for rousing dramatic conflict once again in “Brothers.”

In October 2007 Capt. Sam Cahill, a tough-as-nails Marine, is deployed yet again to fight in Afghanistan. Tobey Maguire is cast as the hometown hero — and believe me — this fierce-eyed actor is no Peter Parker here. He and his wife, Grace (Natalie Portman), are the parents of two young girls. Portman possesses her usual rigidity, but she triumphs at conveying tearful sorrow. Jake Gyllenhaal steals the show as Tommy, the family disappointment and a “Cain” in contrast to his able brother.

There’s more to “Brothers” than just its romantic entanglements, and its primary conflict isn’t what you’d expect. As prefaced above, Cahill returns as only a shell-of-a-man who’s haunted by the demons of war.

I won’t describe his shocking ordeal, but as we watch the film, we know the horrors in his head while the other characters do not. This generates effective suspense.

In addition to being a distressing family drama with the tensest 6-year-old’s birthday party you’ll ever witness, “Brothers” aims to depict how the effects of war can break a person, and how sometimes the biggest battle for troops can be readjusting to civilian life.

This movie’s story seems a peculiar cruelty to me, potentially, in that it could derail a widowed spouse’s grieving process and inspire hope in a hopeless homecoming. On the other hand, some families may have no knowledge of their loved one’s whereabouts and may conversely find “Brothers” to be beneficially hopeful.

Directed by Jim Sheridan

Tobey Maguire / Jake Gyllenhaal / Natalie Portman

Drama 110 min.

MPAA: R (for language and some disturbing violent content)