Among other things, “Brothers” feels like a graduation ceremony for a new, younger generation of actors, who are now taking over the kind of prestige movie their elders used to handle at awards time.
In this serious picture, aimed at Oscar voters, the lead roles are played by Tobey Maguire, Jake Gyllenhaal and Natalie Portman. Since these three actors look even younger than they are, it lends an extra air of lost youth to the story.
And that story will be familiar if you saw Suzanne Bier’s 2004 Danish film “Brothers.” This is a straight, close remake of that picture, a story of how the “war on terror” comes to the homefront.
The brothers are upstanding family man Sam (Maguire) and shiftless screw-up Tommy (Gyllenhaal). Sam’s about to return to duty in Afghanistan, Tommy’s newly home from a prison stint.
If you’d like all the movie’s shocks to be fresh, skip ahead a couple of paragraphs. Sam is shot down and presumed dead, although the audience quickly learns he is being held prisoner by a brutal gang of terrorists.
In the aftermath of her widowhood, Sam’s wife, Grace (Portman), allows Tommy to hang around — mostly to be an uncle to her two daughters, partly because of a growing warmth she feels toward him.
Eventually these worlds will collide, complete with fireworks. This film is designed as an actors’ vehicle — it carefully avoids making overt comments about the wars in the Middle East, so we must rely on the actors and their ability to measure the human costs of conflict.
The report card on that score is mixed. Natalie Portman has some fine moments, none better than her intense near-miss with Gyllenhaal, but the story sidelines her at various times.
Maguire and Gyllenhaal are nothing if not serious, although Maguire has a tendency to overdo the De Nirolike explosions. Sam Shepard plays their tight-lipped military father, quite effectively.
Director Jim Sheridan (“My Left Foot”) goes straight at the big dramatic scenes. He has a genuine gift for working with children, as he proved in “In America”: The performances by Bailee Madison and Taylor Geare are exceptional and authentic (funny, too, when they need to be).
“Brothers” lands some power punches, but it has a weakness for hitting the same intense note throughout. Seeing it so closely after the original version was in theaters makes that quality stand out all too starkly.
“Brothers” ½
Good sibling Tobey Maguire goes to fight in Afghanistan, while bad brother Jake Gyllenhaal stays at home. Issues of tension and terror arise from their experiences, in a movie that’s less a statement on the war than an actors’ vehicle to convey the human costs of conflict. Maguire and Gyllenhaal are serious in big-sized roles, but Natalie Portman comes off best in a less showy part.
Rated: R for language, violence
Showing: Alderwood Mall, Cinebarre Mountlake Terrace, Everett, Galaxy Monroe, Marysville, Neptune, Pacific Place, Thornton Place, Woodinville
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