MOVIE REVIEWS
Brothers
Brothers is a classic American war story about a war that tears a close family apart and brings chaos to the war- torn and the ones left behind. The movie directed by Jim Sheridan is a remake of the Swedish film produced by Susanne Bier called “Brodre.” Natalie Portman, Toby Maguire and Jake Gyllenhal work magically together to craft the story of a destroyed family and the mental collapse of a lost soldier.
The director Jim Sheridan does an excellent job portraying a happy and loving American Family encased with the burden of war. The movie begins with a Captain Sam Cahill, played by Toby Maguire, writing a goodbye letter to his beautiful wife Grace after he discovers he’s going back to Afghanistan. The letter is only to be delivered if he doesn’t return. Before Sam leaves to Afghanistan he picks up his little brother Tommy, played by Jake Gyllenhal, from jail after he is released. Heavy tension is witnessed between their father and Tommy. The father Hank, played by Sam Shepard, glorifies his older son who’s followed his footsteps into the Marines. Hank is proud of Sam’s achievements and continuously points them out to Tommy, hoping he can take his example. The wife played by Natalie Portman and her two children say goodbye to Sam before he leaves to Afghanistan.
While Sam is gone, Grace finds herself taking Sam’s shoes caring for Tommy who finds his home at the local bar, sometimes unable to pay for his bill and seeking help from Grace. One day while Grace is bathing upstairs, there is a knock at the door and her two little girls answer it. It’s two General’s from Sam’s base. Grace is called downstairs where she sees the letter in one of the men’s hands and begins to break down. Sam is dead.
After the funeral passes, Grace spends many days in bed unable to get up and unable to grasp the fact that her husband is dead. To help out the family and comfort the girls, Tommy becomes a daily occurrence in the Cahill household. The girls begin to love him and take him in as a father while Grace also starts to patch bleeding wounds, flashing a smile and a joke in Tommy’s direction.
Just as the Cahill family begins to patch up what they lost, Sam comes back into the picture when Grace gets a phone call that states he was found alive as an Afghan prisoner of war. When Sam comes back, complete chaos brews and that is where I stop my story synopsis!
The movie is half war story and half an American family story. The scenes of war in Afghanistan and Sam’s ordeal of trying to stay alive gives the viewer’s great depth into what really goes on in war- especially the part of the story the media never makes public. Brothers in the end becomes a movie about the effects of war on a soldier and the people close to him.
Because of the somewhat misleading previews of this movie I was a little disappointed. I had preconceiving notions that the movie was going to focus more on the family life and Sam’s complete deterioration after war followed by a lot more action as Sam mentally breaks down. Instead I felt the movie half played out the war scenes and the family scenes. Don’t get me wrong, being a female my eyes busted a few tears with the family’s pain, but I was continuously waiting for an epic blowout from Sam. It was as if the characters were constantly hiding what they felt, except for the children, who knew exactly how to jerk out tears from the audience. Although that being said, Toby Maguire’s talent is wonderfully displayed as he plays an amazing loving father and a savage marine turned to hell all in a 90- minute time frame. Jake Gyllenhal and Natalie Portman were also strongly cohesive in playing their roles. Their few moments of intimacy and friendship felt real and definitely hits close to the heart.
Overall the movie was a good watch and gave me a lot of insight on the going-on’s of war.
Written By Cristina Szewczyk
