Brothers (2009)

In one sentence: not believable. When you do these high emotional movies with high emotional climatic scenes, one thing you got to have: a believable enough build-up to justify what will happen. And this movie fails on this regard. Off course, with the crap that presently is hitting cinemas, this may well be one of the best around, but looking at the larger picture, and some other movies of this genre, this one lags pretty far behind. Jim Sheridan's heyday was many years ago, in his collaborations with Daniel Day-Lewis in "My Left Foot" (1989) and "In the Name of the Father" (1993), but he still has the touch for delicacy and emotional drama. But whatever quality the director may have and tries to give to his picture, it hits a rock solid wall if the screenplay is not up to it. This is a remake of a 2004 Danish film (oh God, will Hollywood ever have an original ideia again?), which I have not seen but I am sure had some very powerful and dark undertones and hidden senses between the lines. But this is a Hollywood flick with 3 great young stars, so forget the undertones. Everything must be out loud, every darn thing must be said, and that, to my peculiar taste, is more than I can bare. Tobey Maguire is a captain from the marines, whose wife is Natalie Portman. First unbelievable thing is that they are too young. Even with older make up on her no one can believe that super hot Natalie Portman, with that body, has given birth to two daughters, with 6 and 4 years of age. Tobey's brother is Jake Gyllenhaal, just release from jail after many years, for a never explained crime. There are a few household scenes and confrontations, mainly driven by the always great Sam Shepard, the grandfather (who looks more like Natalie's grandfather), who is a drunken Vietnam war veteran. He, off course, loves Tobey but despises Jake. The thing here is that the movie balances average scenes that lead nowhere to prove that the characters are normal people, with high drama, cliché like discussions. You can make an entire film with "normal" and "routine" conversation and still make it powerful, but if you want to be dramatic, there are other ways, intelligent ways. Just look at the film "Rachel Getting Married" (2008). But here the drama does not work, it is too "have heard that before, and it was average then!". Anyway, Tobey goes to Afghanistan and supposedly dies. Back home, wife and child receive the news and have to cope with the loss, with the aid of very helpful Jake, who becomes like a father to the family. But the rub (quickly seen) is that Tobey did not die, and suffers atrocities at the hands of the Arabs. More not believable things: 1) the way the family copes with the loss (see the film "Ordinary People" (1980) for a 101 on this subject); 2) Jake, a man out from prison, does not seem to have any sort of job to earn his keep, and so he can spend his entire time with the widow and the children; 3) why do the Arabs spend 3 months torturing Tobey just for the hell of it? Don't they have anything else to do? When Tobey is lead to the extreme and snaps (something happens I will not disclose), its time for the cavalry and he is saved. Back home he does not fit in and clashes with family and friends, becomes paranoid and a menace, until the ultimate climax (about a family clashing see the film "Shoot the Moon" (1982)). Another unbelievable thing, the last straw that brings the climax about is something said by the younger daughter, who is about 4. How can a 4 year old child say what she said is beyond me. The climax, yes, is the only amazing scene in the entire movie. It's a pity we had to go through all that boring stuff to get to it. The movie could have been amazing, if there was more balance between what is said and what is felt. Example: in the very last scene we know that Tobey will tell Natalie his secret of what happened in his captivity. We know, we don't need to hear. Seeing them together with music, the camera moving away would have been enough. But no, we have to hear Natalie: "Tell me what happened". Tobey: "Ok, I will tell you. It was like this..". For what? It is 2 minutes of film wasted! So that they can both cry and hug?.... Huugh! This was good material, and to someone not as sensitive as myself to good screenplays it will definitely be enjoyable. Natalie shines in two moments, both times she picks up the phone to receive the news that her husband is dead, and then alive. The rest of her 2 hours of crying is hindered by the average things going on around her. Gyllenhaal and Maguire do their parts nicely also, Maguire maybe with a little hint of the overacting. Supporting cast great also. It is not by the cast, nor by the directing. The movie fails because of the way it was constructed. More "average" scenes with deeper meaning were needed. Instead we got "average" scenes with no meaning, and dramatic scenes with a straight-in-the-face meaning for morons. The climax is excellent, but unfortunately I don't believe in it. Well, maybe it's just me... By the way, 8 year old Taylor Geare will go far... boy, that girl can act!