When is a seemingly great movie not actually all that great? Watch Brothers and find out. Brothers has all the things in place to be a great film: an acclaimed director (Jim Sheridan - My Left Foot, In the Name of the Father) a capable cast who give outstanding performances (Tobey Maguire, Jake Gyllenhall, Natalie Portman) and an emotional script but is weighed down with some very melodramatic sequences straight out of a soap opera and some odd directorial choices.
Sam Cahill (Maguire) is an honorable family man and a marine about to embark on his 4th tour of duty in Afghanistan. His younger brother Tommy (Gyllenhall) is a ex-convict with a drinking problem. They have a loving but adversarial relationship with Tommy feeling like he can never live up to the expectations Sam has set for him. When Sam's helicopter is shot down and he is presumed dead, Tommy takes it upon himself to step in and be there for Sam's wife Grace (Portman) and 2 daughters. Tommy and Grace eventually overcome their differences and start to develop feelings for each other. The tricky part is that Sam isn't actually dead, he's been captured and forced to endure extreme physical and mental torture. The movies main conflict arrives when Sam is rescued and returned home.
While there are a lot of great things about the movie the finest aspect of Brothers is easily the performances of the three leads. Maguire shows a darkness I never would have thought he was capable of. The depths of emotion he reaches in the second half of the film is pretty amazing for an actor who's previous dark side consisted of parting his hair different and going "emo" in Spiderman 3. Gyllenhall's performance is more subtle but still very affective. He elicits a considerable amount of sympathy for a character that starts out anything but sympathetic. Portman isn't given as much to do but she makes the most with what is there.
The script also has a very strong emotional core at the heart of it. Brotherly competition and family issues are universal and the effects of a captured soldier with young children is something that will be sure to draw emotion from pretty much everyone.
For all the good things the movie has to offer there are a bunch of things that keep it from being a must see movie.There are a number of moments when I cringed with the dialogue being spoken. Also I swear there are scenes lifted straight out of soap opera 101 with melodrama being a complete understatement. Some of the choices in music are questionable at best. A scene involving Grace and Tommy bonding over ice skating has a terrible, synthetic and totally distracting song playing over it. It completely took me out of the movie. Supporting characters offer suffer from questionable actions as well. The lowlight involves one of Tommy's friends becoming ridiculously upset that his choice to wear brand new pants while painting a kitchen backfires when they end up covered in paint. I'm sure it was supposed to be a humorous moment in a film without many but it just came off as pathetic and nonsensical.
The Blu-ray is technically great regardless of my reservations with the film. The movie isn't shot in a flashy style and the color palette is pretty reserved. Even without striking colors it's well worth seeing in HD. Individual detail is excellent, you can see the stitching in clothing as well as individual strands of hair throughout and the outdoor scenes while drab are very well represented. It's not the prettiest movie ever made but the video transfer seems very faithful to the directors intent. The audio as well is not going to bow you away but it fits with the tone and style of the film. Dialogue is very well represented and the few action oriented scenes really open up the soundscape, with low end and surrounds coming alive in those instances.
There are a lot of reasons to go see Brothers. The emotional core of the story along with the tremendous performances being the prime examples but there are enough things wrong with it that keep it from being a must see. If nothing else Tobey Maguire has earned a lot more respect for his acting abilities from me.
Ratings:
Movie 3.5/5
Blu-ray 4/5
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