What’s the international symbol for Emoting Ahead?
Drama fans will enjoy Brothers, a tragic story about an American family played out against a backdrop of war.
Tobey Maguire and Jake Gyllenhaal play siblings in a blue-collar family, with Maguire leading life as the older, serious brother and Gyllenhaal playing the black sheep.
The story begins with Gyllenhaal getting out of jail just in time to bid his brother goodbye — Maguire is going back to Afghanistan. He must leave his wife (Natalie Portman) and kids, yet again.
It’s no secret that Maguire’s character is soon reported missing and presumed dead. (That’s all revealed in the ads and trailers for the movie. And too bad.) At any rate, in this time of grieving, Gyllenhaal tries to be responsible for his brother’s family. He drinks less. He’s more responsible. He turns up to play with the children, comfort the wife, help with a house renovation.
Maybe he’s not such a bad guy after all.
After watching Maguire’s soldier character behave as if he had a pickle up a prominent orifice, you can see how a person might prefer the company of the naughty younger brother.
While Portman and Gyllenhaal slowly get to know each other, the audience gets to see Maguire’s character being held captive and tortured in Afghanistan. It’s obvious that he is going through hell. Later, he brings that hell home with him. When our soldier returns to the United States, his obsession is his wife’s relationship with his brother.
Will he regain his relationship with his family? Will he regain his sanity? Will he forgive himself for what happened while he was away?
You could say that Brothers is far more a family story than a war story, but neither element ever feels fully realized. There’s something essential missing from this movie — heart, you might say — and more than a few of the performances ring false. In a cast that includes Sam Shepard, Carey Mulligan and a couple of precocious child actors, only Mare Winningham, as the brothers’ stepmother, seems to fully inhabit her character. (Sam Shepard’s turn as a hard-drinking, taciturn vet never quite manages to establish a war-is-hell-on-the-family continuum.)
You never forget that you’re watching a movie. That’s a bad sign. And those not emotionally invested in the whole Middle East debacle may find it difficult to empathize.
And that’s our opinion. Other people will tell you that they think Maguire will get an Oscar nomination for his performance here, and that others in the cast may very well join him in the nominations lineup.
Is there a category for chewing the scenery?
BROTHERS
1 Hour, 50 Minutes
Starring
Natalie Portman, Tobey Maguire, Jake Gyllenhaal
Director
Jim Sheridan
Sun Rating: 2 1/2 out of 5
