Brothers

Synopsis

Captain Sam Cahill (Tobey Maguire, Spiderman) and younger brother Tommy Cahill (Jake Gyllenhaal, Rendition), are total opposites. Sam is a Marine who has done multiple tours of duty, a committed family man married to his high school sweetheart named Grace (Natalie Portman, The Other Bolelyn Girl) with whom he has two little girls. Tommy is a wanderer who has no major goals except to get by on his wit and charm. After Sam’s Black Hawk helicopter is shot down in the mountains, he is presumed dead. Tommy tries to help out his brother’s wife and kids the best he can by filling Sam’s shoes. Tommy and Grace grow very close during their grief. But, Sam isn’t dead and when he unexpectedly returns home to the States, he grows suspicious of Tommy and Grace. This brings about new physical and mental life challenges.

Review

Toby Maguire (Spiderman) was excellent! You could see him acting with his eyes. They told a story. Brothers’ premise was good, yet, I think it really had a chance to expand to something even better, but it really didn’t. At least not the way I wanted it to. The fact still remains, Brothers was a good film with a top-rate cast.

Brothers is a drama-war film that’s based on Susanne Bier’s 2004 Danish film of the same name. I haven’t gotten a chance to see the original, but would like to very soon. I need to take the time to do it. Anyhoo, the story is about Sam Cahill (Maguire) a Marine, husband, father of two girls and a war hero. When his plane goes down in Afghanistan and is presumed dead, back home his family is devastated. His brother Tommy Cahill (Jake Gyllenhaal, Rendition), an ex-con and the screw up of the family, shockingly steps up and helps out his brother’s wife Grace (Natalie Portman, The Other Boleyn Girl) and her girls. This builds a certain bond between Grace and Tommy. Hmmp.

Then SHAZAM…SAM IS ALIVE!!! What a relief. His family is ecstatic to hear the news. He returns home, but not the same. And the craziness begins.

The acting was really good in this flick. I felt and could see the brokenness and the pain the family had. Maguire did the dayum thing. That man can act and does deserve some accolades. I certainly won’t forget his performance. Heck, I wanted to just hand him a few tissues to wipe his tears away. Awww!

We all know Natalie Portman can act. Did you see V for Vendetta? Well, there you go. Jake Gyllenhaal’s role didn’t require him to dig as deep as I’ve seen him in other films. Or at least I didn’t see him digging deep the way I would have liked him too. Heck, this is the homedude that did Brokeback Mountain. Now that was some GOOOOOD acting, if you know what I mean.

Now one of my favorite actors in this film besides Maguire was Bailee Madison (Lonely Hearts). She played Isabelle Cahill, Sam and Grace’s oldest daughter. There was a scene that you can see in the trailer when she yelled out that her mother was just mad because she’d rather be sleeping with her uncle Tommy than her daddy. Well, first of all they should have slapped that little girl busting out with such harsh words while her daddy seemed a little cookaloo.

Anyhoo, Bailee could act her little butt off. I’m trying to figure out how she cried on queue so well at her young age. My word she was tremendous. I could feel her frustration, hurt and anger. I’m trying to comprehend why would the Golden Globes or any other awards show not recognize a performance like this young lady’s? Is it a popularity contest? I just have to know how the nominees are chosen because some performances I feel are NOT worthy of an Oscar nod or Golden Globe, but yet the actor gets one? It bothers me year after year. Definitely this year too!

Actors and voters better get out there and start campaigning for what they thought was a good performance for real. Shoot, if I knew I had a HECK of a performance, I’d be out their campaigning like my last name was Obama or McCain.

Brothers is worth seeing on the cast alone, but this is one of those films that would be perfect on DVD. Brothers had elements of war, post-traumatic stress disorder and betrayal. It was very sad at times. Although, the trailer was just a tad bit-misleading if you ask me. And I wasn’t 100% happy with the ending. This movie was good, but for some reason it wasn’t as good as I thought it would be.

My Rating ~ 3 Reels

Audience Rating (What's Yours?)