Brothers

Rated: Rated R for language and some disturbing violent content.

Genre: Drama, Thriller, War

Release Date: 4 December 2009

Runtime: 105 min

Director: Jim Sheridan

Cast: Jake Gyllenhaal, Natalie Portman, Tobey Maguire, Clifton Collins Jr., Bailee Madison, Taylor Geare, Patrick Flueger

Brothers is the story of two siblings, Sam (Tobey Maguire) and younger brother Tommy (Jake Gyllenhaal) Cahill. Sam is the average man, married to his high school sweetheart, Grace (Natalie Portman), with whom he has two young daughters, Isabelle and Maggie (Bailee Madison, Taylor Grace Geare). The film opens with Tommy being released from jail for armed robbery, not long before Sam, a Marine, is about to embark on his fourth tour of duty for Afghanistan.

With Sam gone, Tommy attempts to redeem himself in the eyes of his family that includes the forgiving step-mother and the disappointed ex-Marine father, by wrangling old friends to help with kitchen repairs for Grace and the kids. As Grace slowly sheds her previous resentment towards her brother-in-law, surprise news arrives letting the family know that Sam’s helicopter has crashed over the water, leaving him presumed dead. In reality, he and a hometown friend, Private Joe Willis (Patrick Flueger), have been taken prisoner in a mountain village by the enemy. Sam and Joe are abused and tortured by the Afghan militants, forced to make videotaped dismissals of the military and their mission, though only Joe cracks. The captors eventually deem him useless, and force Sam at gunpoint to beat him to death with a lead pipe.

Sam is eventually rescued and returns home, traumatized by his experience, alive, yet in an emotional coma. He drifts through his days refusing to explain to his family what happened whilst in Afghanistan. He also believes Tommy and Grace had a sexual relationship in his absence, clearly a cloud of paranoia is chasing him since his return. At some point nearing the end of the film  Sam snaps, destroying the newly remodeled kitchen and pulling a gun on Tommy. The police arrive, and after a frantic confrontation in which Sam nearly commits suicide, Sam surrenders and is admitted to a mental hospital. During a visit from Grace, he finally admits to killing Joe.

Hollywood’s love triangle films have been done and redone to the extent that the avid movie watcher no longer feels the excitement of who will s/he pick? How will this tale end? Who are we rooting for? As for myself, I have never felt  105 minutes go by so slowly. From what I heard and saw around the theatre, it was going slow for quiet a few others. There was a lot of talk in this film and I was personally mislead with the previews and IMDB’s genre tagging. I thought we would see a little bit more action (thriller & war tags) from Toby Maguire’s character, however the story stayed rooted, for about 98% of the film, in the US and therefore making this a drama film more than anything else. Had I been forewarned I would have saved this movie for a day with a snow storm, at least it would give me something to do while waiting for the storm to pass.