Brothers

Brothers: There are some things the rule books just don’t prepare you for. The correct number of buttons done up on one’s waistcoat, the incorrect times to wear thongs, when to sneeze at a concert, Debrett’s has these things covered. What is to be done, however, when your husband is killed by insurgents in Afghanistan and, in your grief, you accidentally snog his brother, only to discover he isn’t dead at all, but simply misplaced? How does one overcome the social awkwardness when said husband returns, and one finds oneself caught in a tense and embarrassing love triangle? Is there a correct fork or perhaps just the right dinner setting that, correctly applied, overcome such paux pas?

Such is the situation in the Cahill home in Brothers, a remake of the 2004 Danish film Brodre. Soldier Sam Cahill (Tobey Maguire) prepares for another tour to Afghanistan, leaving behind wife Grace (Natalie Portman) and daughters (Bailee Madison & Taylor Geare). Before his departure, Sam is able to share a final family meal with his recently released jailbird brother Tommy (Jake Gyllenhaal), curmudgeonly dad (Sam Shepard) and long suffering mother (Mare Winningham). Sam is the only one with any faith left in poor Tommy, though when Sam’s chopper is downed not long into his tour, the family grieves for Sam, and Tommy feels a sense of protectiveness towards Grace and Sam’s young daughters.

Brothers is a film of amazing performances. Natalie Portman and Jake Gyllenhaal’s work is subtle and outstanding, and even Toby Maguire does a fine job. It takes some time to warm to him as a hard-as-nails soldier working his way through emotional trauma – he is just so Disney cute that it feels like watching a Muppet getting all cranky and serious. Anyone who has seen Jim Sheridan’s earlier film In America knows his talent for extracting superlative performances from young actors, and so Bailee Madison and Taylor Geare, as Sam and Grace’s daughters, unsettled by loss and confused emotions, perfectly render their roles with a rare believability.

Sheridan extracts his own film from Susanne Bier’s Danish original, and the powerhouse performances from his cast help you to overlook any number of small flaws, like a grating soundtrack, the jump mid-film from romance to violent thriller, the one dimensionality of some characters, or a lack of pace. Brothers may look like another veteran adjusting to life at home movie, but the heart of this film is a rich exploration of family relationships.

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