There's no shortage of film talent on hand in the new war-themed Brothers. The film stars Spider-Man himself, Tobey Maguire, Jake Gyllenhaal, and Natalie Portman, is written by acclaimed screenwriter David Benioff (25th Hour, The Kite Runner), and is directed by Jim Sheridan, who's earned Oscar nominations for his work on such films as My Left Foot, In the Name of the Father, and In America.
Given the strength of the material (the film is based on the Swedish film Brødre, which garnered a slew of awards/nominations in 2004/2005), it's no wonder so many big people jumped on board. Maguire plays Capt. Sam Cahill, an Army officer sent to Afghanistan for another tour of duty.
His being shipped overseas just so happens to coincide with his brother, Tommy (Gyllenhaal), being released from prison. The lives of the two couldn't be any different, with Sam, married with two kids to the beautiful Grace (Portman), viewed as the clean-cut hero and Tommy seen as the no-account screw-up, especially by their father (Sam Shepard).
Things start to shift dramatically when Sam is reported dead after a helicopter crash. Tommy begins to feel protective of Grace and her daughters, taking time to visit with them every day and offer his services as a contractor to fix up their kitchen. Meanwhile, Sam is actually alive (why would the Army tell his family he was dead if they had no proof?), suffering unspeakable torture at the hands of his Afghan captors.
Brothers has many of the right elements in it for it to succeed – the story is set up to be gut-wrenching, it has tons of talent (heck, even U2 contributed a new song for the soundtrack) – but for some reason, all of that is not able to add up to a great film. Part of that is the feeling of inevitability over much of the story. Many of the plot turns are preordained, so there are no real surprises in store. And what surprises there are seem blunted by poor choices.
For one, Maguire and Portman are much too young-looking to convincingly pull off their roles. Sam is supposed to be Tommy's older brother, and while Maguire does have five years on Gyllenhaal in real life, the opposite appears to be true when looking at them. While Portman has played a mother before, she falters when it comes time to show off her maternal skills here (strange, since she handles the other aspects of the role just fine).
But the biggest misstep is the acting of Maguire. Whether it's his boyish face, his semi-squeaky voice, or something ineffable, he was entirely the wrong choice to portray the anguished Army captain (it also doesn't help that Gyllenhaal played a similar role much better in Jarhead).
Not enough background is provided for his character to be trusted as a military higher-up. Also, he is given multiple opportunities to scream in torment (mental and/or physical), but his pain is never truly believable. He feels more like a kid acting out than someone who has experienced things no one should ever have to go through.
Brothers fits all the right criteria for an end-of-the-year, Oscar-baiting war/family drama, but it never fully lives up to that promise. There's a good movie in there somewhere, but it's obscured by a rote plot and some uninspired acting.
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