Released: December 4th, 2009
Starring: Natalie Portman, Tobey Maguire, Jake Gyllenhaal
Writer/Director: David Benioff/Jim Sheridan
Description: A young man comforts his older brother's wife and children after he goes missing in Afghanistan.
[Review may contain spoilers. Please watch movie before reading, unless you don't care. Most of these films have already been released for a while, so they should be readily available.]
***
Sometimes filling your cast with powerful A-list actors can be a hindrance to your film because they don't really mesh together, and therefore, there's no connection to the audience. Egos come into play a lot, and some actors worry too much about number of lines rather than creating a great piece of art. Some people don't work well with perceived equals and need to feel superior to their peers.
"Brothers" fortunately suffers from none of these issues. Natalie Portman, Tobey Maguire and Jake Gyllenhaal all bring top-notch performances and the trio help raise each other's individual performances. Maguire, especially because this film came out in the shadow of the terrible final chapter of his "Spiderman" movies, reminded us of how good of an actor he can be with the right script. He, along with Gyllenhaal, brings an intensity to this movie that I rarely see anymore.
Sam (Maguire) and Tommy (Gyllenhaal) are polar opposites as brothers; the former is Marine Captain and the latter is a ex-convict. After Sam is deployed for the fourth time overseas, he is captured and presumed dead. This leaves his grieving widow, Grace (Portman), all alone to raise the couple's daughters. Tommy, who has straightened himself out after Sam's death, offer to help and becomes a surrogate father, but he and Grace never really go past a kiss in the intimacy department. Just when everything goes back to normal, Sam is rescued, returns home but is not himself.
He becomes obsessed with the idea of Tommy and Grace sleeping with each other behind his back. This is where the emotion and the performances get turned up a notch, as Sam slowly becomes more and more disturbed -- eventually leading to a stay in a mental hospital -- Maguire begins to shine. The confrontation scenes between the trio are gut wrenching and tear-jerking, but fall just short of transcendence. This flaw usually occurs when one of the three goes a little too over the top with the emotion and makes the scene more soap opera-y than realistic.
Those moments are what keep the film from becoming a truly great film. Great acting, as mentioned before, is all about nuance, with the trick being the ability to make it look like your not acting. When the audience can tell you thought about a reaction, or can tell that you primed yourself before your line, they immediately get pulled out of the world and are reminded that it's a movie. Great films keep you engaged, while good films have lulls in them.
The direction was pretty good. The tone was perfect, and the camera work was almost spot on, but again, it fell just short of greatness. That seems to be the common thread of this movie: the parts are really good, but they just fail to make that final connection to ascend the film into the greatness level.
"Brothers" is a good movie that doesn't purposely shoot itself in the foot. There are just small mistakes that hold it back from it's true potential. These mistakes are not limited to one area as there are acting slip-up, directing miscues and editing oversights. It's one of those solid second tier films that needed one or two things to go differently for it to reach top tier status, which shows you how difficult reaching that level can be for a film.
Rating: 7/10 -- Very well done film that should be viewed by everyone. Reminds us all that Tobey Maguire can act, especially when he's paired with Jake Gyllenhaal instead of Topher Grace. Definitely, a topic most American can relate to today.
"Brothers" fortunately suffers from none of these issues. Natalie Portman, Tobey Maguire and Jake Gyllenhaal all bring top-notch performances and the trio help raise each other's individual performances. Maguire, especially because this film came out in the shadow of the terrible final chapter of his "Spiderman" movies, reminded us of how good of an actor he can be with the right script. He, along with Gyllenhaal, brings an intensity to this movie that I rarely see anymore.
Sam (Maguire) and Tommy (Gyllenhaal) are polar opposites as brothers; the former is Marine Captain and the latter is a ex-convict. After Sam is deployed for the fourth time overseas, he is captured and presumed dead. This leaves his grieving widow, Grace (Portman), all alone to raise the couple's daughters. Tommy, who has straightened himself out after Sam's death, offer to help and becomes a surrogate father, but he and Grace never really go past a kiss in the intimacy department. Just when everything goes back to normal, Sam is rescued, returns home but is not himself.
He becomes obsessed with the idea of Tommy and Grace sleeping with each other behind his back. This is where the emotion and the performances get turned up a notch, as Sam slowly becomes more and more disturbed -- eventually leading to a stay in a mental hospital -- Maguire begins to shine. The confrontation scenes between the trio are gut wrenching and tear-jerking, but fall just short of transcendence. This flaw usually occurs when one of the three goes a little too over the top with the emotion and makes the scene more soap opera-y than realistic.
Those moments are what keep the film from becoming a truly great film. Great acting, as mentioned before, is all about nuance, with the trick being the ability to make it look like your not acting. When the audience can tell you thought about a reaction, or can tell that you primed yourself before your line, they immediately get pulled out of the world and are reminded that it's a movie. Great films keep you engaged, while good films have lulls in them.
The direction was pretty good. The tone was perfect, and the camera work was almost spot on, but again, it fell just short of greatness. That seems to be the common thread of this movie: the parts are really good, but they just fail to make that final connection to ascend the film into the greatness level.
"Brothers" is a good movie that doesn't purposely shoot itself in the foot. There are just small mistakes that hold it back from it's true potential. These mistakes are not limited to one area as there are acting slip-up, directing miscues and editing oversights. It's one of those solid second tier films that needed one or two things to go differently for it to reach top tier status, which shows you how difficult reaching that level can be for a film.
Rating: 7/10 -- Very well done film that should be viewed by everyone. Reminds us all that Tobey Maguire can act, especially when he's paired with Jake Gyllenhaal instead of Topher Grace. Definitely, a topic most American can relate to today.
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