Jim Sheridan's Brothers is a sharp, effective drama that mixes together several different elements such as family, guilt, war, and forgiveness to tell an increasingly intense story. It starts off slow, but slowly builds up to a climax that could go in any number of directions. This is a story about what effects war can have on a normal family.
Capt. Sam Cahill (Tobey Maguire) is a Marine about to be shipped overseas to Afghanistan, leaving behind his wife, Grace (Natalie Portman), and his two daughters, Isabelle (Bailee Madison) and Maggie (Taylor Geare). At the same time, Sam's brother, Tommy (Jake Gyllenhaal), is just getting out of prison and comes to dinner that night. There is obvious tension between Tommy and his father, Hank (Sam Shepard), who thinks that Tommy should have been more like Sam.
While in Afghanistan, Sam's helicopter is shot down and it is reported that he was killed. The news is delivered to Grace and a funeral is held in Sam's honor. Meanwhile, Tommy takes it upon himself to look after Grace and her daughters. However, the film reveals very quickly that Sam is in fact not dead, but a prisoner of the enemy. While in their possession, Sam is forced to make an impossible choice in order to survive that leaves him emotionally scarred. Grace is informed of Sam's survival and he returns home, but things aren't quite the same, especially when Sam gets the idea in his head that Tommy and Grace may have been together.
What works best for Brothers are the scenes in which it is able to build up an incredible amount of tension, which it is able to do quite often. The scene in Afghanistan where Sam is forced to do a terrible act is one of the first that uses this tension to engage the audience. Later on, after Sam comes home, there are numerous scenes in which Sam has to readjust to life at home.
His daughters basically don't really know him anymore because he is such a changed person, plus, they've gotten used to their Uncle Tommy being around. During dinner one night, one of his daughters makes a joke which Sam doesn't get. His sense of humor has been quickly forgotten after what he went through in Afghanistan.
There are times when Brothers feels like it's about to stray into melodramatic territory, and perhaps it does in a few parts, but the performances by Maguire, Gyllenhaal, and Portman are so honest and strong that it's easy to forgive the film when it does.
It's hard to think of when Maguire has given a better performance. I can't recall ever having seen him be this fierce on screen. Maguire has tackled the dramatic side of acting before with The Cider House Rules, but is probably best known at this point in his career for playing Peter Parker in the Spider-Man films. There is one instance in Brothers where he goes a bit over the top, but he's able to bring it back down in time for a very powerful climax.
Here's another instance where I wish that trailers wouldn't give so much of a film away as this film's trailer shows glimpses of the climax. This is where all the tension that has been built up throughout finally comes to a head. I said it could have gone in any direction, but the best direction is chosen here. All of this guilt and suspicion has been building in Sam throughout most of the film. Here is where he has to decide how to handle it.
David Benioff's script could have easily been ruined in the hands of the wrong actors, but the stars of Brothers know just how to handle the material to make it work. Sheridan's direction is very subtle, which is just right for a story like this. This is an instance where you can easily forget you're watching actors, because the story just feels real. 3/4 stars.
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