Brothers [2009]

This war movie seems to be quite popular. With the success of The Hurt Locker, it is not a surprise. This remake of a Danish movie Brødre is a bit different approach to the war stories in modern cinema. Especially modern American cinema, that has been more values oriented. Brothers shifts the focus to personal lives of soldiers and people around them instead of focusing on almost action and judgment wrapped conclusions. Sure, during the seventies and eighties there have been a number of movies that were antagonistic towards the whole war business, but they made that distinction right there on the battlefield.

After Sam Cahill leaves on another tour of duty in Afghanistan, his brother comes to live with his family to help them around. Loser brother, recently released from prison starts to form a bond with the kids and Sam’s wife. Scars of war, and its devastating influence on one’s family are in focus here. Tobey Maguire and the scene in the kitchen are just awesome and I loved him here, Jake gave his usual curios cool loser performance, and the rest was pretty mediocre. The script was good, but as one member of marines noticed there are a lot of inconsistencies, especially towards the end of the movie. I guess something had to be sacrificed for the emotional vibe that is emphasized here.

Director: Jim Sheridan

Cast: Jake Gyllenhaal, Natalie Portman, Tobey Maguire, Clifton Collins Jr.Sam Shepard

Fun Stuff: Tobey Maguire and Jake Gyllenhaal play the brothers in this film. Maguire nearly had to decline the lead role in Spider-Man 2 (2004) due to back injuries, and Gyllenhaal was the top choice to replace him.

Rating:

IMDb Link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0765010/