Brothers DVD
Starring: Natalie Portman, Tobey Maguire, Jake Gyllenhaal, Bailee Madison
Director: Jim Sheridan
Rating: 4/5
Movies that focus in the war in Iraq and Afghanistan have been largely criticised or ignored in the last few years, but all that changed in 2010 with the success of The Hurt Locker.
But Brothers is a very different movie that looks at how families that are left behind cope with the loss of a loved one.
Thirty-something Captain Sam Cahill and his younger brother Tommy Cahill, are polar opposites. A Marine about to embark on his fourth tour of duty, Sam is a steadfast family man married to his high school sweetheart, the aptly named Grace, with whom he has two young daughters.
Tommy, his charismatic younger brother, is a drifter just out of jail who's always gotten by on wit and charm.
He slides easily into his role as family provocateur on his first night out of prison, at Sam's farewell dinner with their parents, Elsie and Hank Cahill, a retired Marine.
Shipped out to Afghanistan, Sam is presumed dead when his Black Hawk helicopter is shot down in the mountains.
Back home, while Sam wastes away as a prisoner in a remote encampment, Tommy tries to take care of the widow and her two children.
While imprisoned, Sam experiences horrors unbearable, so when he's rescued and returns home, he's silent, detached, without affect, and his relationships with his family are put under enormous strain.
The movie's main asset is it's terrific cast who all turn in outstanding performances in this emotionally charged movie that has a real message at the heart of it.
Granted the climax is a little long in coming but when it does Sheridan delivers a powerful story of family tension and a soldier coping with he saw and experienced.
It's a great performance from Maguire who is haunted by his actions in Afghanistan but it's a film that looks at the subject of traumatised veterans without falling into cliche or going over the top.
Gyllenhaal demonstrates yet again that he is a terrific actor as he steps into the role of father to protect and look after his family after the 'death' of his older brother.
There's such a great chemistry between Gyllenhaal and Portman as their hurt at the loss of a brother and a husband, as well as their need for one another, really drives the movie forward.
Director Jim Sheridan keeps the simple plot of the original, a Danish movie called Brode, and contrasts well the suburban of American with the harrowing war sequences.
Keeping the plot simple Sheridan has allowed himself, and the cast, to explore the characters as the movie crescendos into a film about jealousy, resentment and guilt that packs a major punch.
Brothers is out on DVD now.
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