Powerfully Acted Brothers a Mixed Deployment
When I first watched Susanne Bier’s Brothers (Brødre) back in 2004 I admit it caught me a tiny bit off guard. The film was so emotionally blistering I didn’t give it quite the credit it deserved until much later in the year when I realized it had planted itself so firmly upon my psyche I was having difficulty letting go of it. There is a character-driven complexity belying the rather simple (and relatively melodramatic) nature of the narrative, the director elevating things to a level I’m not entirely sure is found in the script.
Tobey Maguire and Natalie Portman in Lionsgate Films' Brothers
I bring this up because as solid a presentation as acclaimed filmmaker Jim Sheridan’s (In America, In the Name of the Father) remake is, this new Brothers never roots as deeply or as intimately as Bier’s original. While the story remains relatively unchanged – after upright professional soldier Capt. Sam Cahill (Tobey Maguire) goes missing and is pronounced dead while fighting in Afghanistan his jailbird brother Tommy (Jake Gyllenhaal) attempts to redeem himself by looking after his sibling’s wife Grace (Natalie Portman) and their two young daughters – the effect it had upon me wasn’t near as powerful.
Not that certain moments do not come close to achieving that same level of intimacy. A quiet scene between Sam and Tommy after the latter has miraculously returned home alive at an ice skating rink speaks volumes, while the look on Portman’s face as she cycles through her presumed-dead husband’s clothes is downright heartbreaking. In fact, although she’s not in as much of it as I would have liked the actress’ fragile yet unbowed presence dominates the picture, her performance as good (if not better) than her Oscar-nominated work in Mike Nichol’s Closer.
Yet as good as these things are the film itself is frustratingly aloof, almost as if Sheridan and screenwriter David Benioff (The Kite Runner) were going through the motions of adapting Bier and co-writer Anders Thomas Jensen’s script instead of giving it their own metaphorical spin. Much of the time I felt like I was watching this one at far too much of a distance, and when secrets are revealed and unexpected connections are made they often felt rudimentary and obvious instead of visceral and authentic.
As horrible as all this sounds I do not want to dismiss Brothers as a failure or a missed opportunity. Gyllenhaal is beautifully understated as Tommy, while Maguire slowly boils splendidly as his Sam starts to succumb to the traumatic stresses he went through trying to survive in Afghanistan. There are a couple of wonderful supporting turns from old pros Sam Shepard and Mare Winningham, while Bailee Madison and Taylor Geare are just priceless as Sam and Grace’s little girls.
More, with recent events being what they are the movie can’t help but have a relevancy it might not have otherwise generated. As thin as the emotional conundrums facing the Cahills can feel they still are often able to connect despite the screenplay’s melodramatic overtones and emotional shortcomings. There are moments when I almost forgot I was watching a movie, instead gaining insight into the lives of soldiers and their families I hadn’t anticipated.
Is that enough? For me it is, if only just barely, but the good here so outweighs the bad I’m able to forgive much of what’s wrong with Sheridan’s remake of Brothers and instead embrace the bits and pieces I found merit in. Will it have the lasting impact then of Bier’s original? No, probably not, and for those really wanting to have their socks knocked off and their souls shattered I suggest picking that one up for a rental right now and waiting until this one hits DVD in order to make a comparison.
Film Rating: êê1/2 (out of 4)
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