Unreal Movie Review: Brothers
Brothers is not what you’re expecting. The trailers paint it as a revenge flick, with a soldier returning home to find his wife in bed with his brother. This leads to lots of screaming crying and pistol brandishing, and looks to be a pretty intense feature.
That’s misleading however, as Brothers is more a commentary on war, and the psychological devastation it brings upon our soldiers who return home from serving overseas, subject matter that is equally intense, but not what you thought you were getting yourself into.
Capt. Sam Cahill (Tobey Maguire) is a young up-and-coming officer in the Marines. He’s constantly shuffling between home and Afghanistan, every time having leave his wife, Grace (Natalie Portman) and two adorable girls behind. Before he ships out on his latest tour, he meets his brother, Tommy (Jake Gyllenhaal) who has just been let out of jail, after a lifetime of permanently screwing up.
Once he’s overseas, Sam’s helicopter is shot down and it’s reported to Grace that he’s been KIA. The family is understandably devastated, and Tommy, immediately begins to reform from his miscreant ways, and starts helping Grace, doing everything from rebuilding her kitchen to playing with her daughters. After twelve weeks of this, he and Grace get a little drunk and kiss for eight seconds, but quickly realize it’s wrong and that they both just really miss Sam.
But Sam is not dead, he and a fellow Marine are recovered from their downed copter by a very unfriendly band of Taliban who keep them prisoner while routinely starving and torturing them. The psychological abuse comes to a head when Sam is forced to bludgeon his friend to death with a pipe, a feat, he’s told, that will spare his life so he can return home to his family. Even the Taliban seems surprised when he does it.
US forces eventually find and raid the camp, and Sam is rescued and returned home to his family, but he’s now an extremely different person due to three months of hell at the bottom of a hole in a mountain. He’s confronted with the widow and baby son of the man he killed, and routinely goes off the deep end as he thinks Tommy and Grace have been sleeping together during his time of fake-death.
“Why the hell would they tell you I was dead? What exactly did you put in that coffin?”
But outside of brief mistake, Tommy and Grace really have nothing to be shamed about, and the film becomes about the transformation of Maguire’s character from a loving father to a shell shocked vet. The film is an excellent psychological case study of the effects of PTSD. Paranoia, flashbacks, OCD tendencies all manifest themselves in Maguire’s surprisingly excellent performance, as he proves he’s got more acting chops than we’ve previously given him credit for.
He’s the highlight of the film to be sure, but there isn’t much else to make it shine. Gyllenhaal’s transformation from convict to good guy is as smooth as silk, and the role doesn’t require a whole lot of him other than the ability to convincing interact with children. Natalie Portman can emote, but that’s not quite the same thing as acting, and I’ve yet to be convinced she can carry a big dramatic role. I’m not sold on the casting in this film, as even though Portman and Maguire make a good enough pair, neither of them looks a day over nineteen, despite their real-life ages, and it’s hard to believe they have children that old.
The plot itself has a few glaring holes as well. Is it routine Marine procedure to hold a funeral for a soldier whose body has never been accounted for, to the point where patrols are still searching for it in the area? There’s a big difference between “missing” and “dead” and I don’t really want to believe the army is capable of f*cking up this much in real life, though I suppose it wouldn’t be the first time.
It’s a highly, intensely emotional film, but not necessarily a great one. It features some important lessons about the dangers of war to be sure, but in a movie with no bad guy and no one to really blame, you just walk out feeling empty. There’s no resolution to speak of, and only more pain on the horizon. War is bad. Vets need care. That’s really all you can come away with. It’s a film that will hit home with many military families, but will ultimately not leave a lasting impression on most.
3 out of 5 stars
“We’re just uhhh, remodeling, go back to bed.”
One: You just said that this guy is a Marine, don’t then in the next sentence refer to the Army fucking up. The Army and the Marines are not a single organization.
Two: They would not have declared him KIA, standard procedure when a body is not found is to declare soldiers MIA and that is what they would have done specifically for situations like this. Even if logic says that the soldier is dead they declare them MIA.
Last: He beat his fucking buddy to death with a pipe and you want me to buy that he is a sympathetic character? I have a lot of trouble buying into that, I understand that they were extreme circumstances but the military trains for extreme circumstances and I have a lot of trouble seeing myself being able to sympathize with a character who does that.
I totally disagree with your assesment of the film as a whole. There is an open ending to the film and that is supposed to lead us to discussion. I walked out of the theater and talked for at least an hour about the overall themes and what they meant for the war culture we are a part of right now. Maybe there is no answer but to get people talking is the first step toward a solution and I believe this film did a great job of opening up that forum
@matt
Sorry I guess I meant “armed forces.” Your other two points are correct.
@2022Norrisk
I think even a solid ending to the film could have left the themes of it open for discussion after the film. My friends and I mostly just talked about the KIA vs. MIA thing.
The armed forces don’t consider you “dead” until it’s been like fifty years and they’re still kind of “uh” on it.
Soldiers MIA from World War II are still not, officially, considered dead yet and it’s been over sixty years since the war ended.
Speaking to the age thing, Jim Sheridan said in an interview that when he visited a military base, there were many young couples — as in younger than Maguire (34) and Portman (28). He spoke of one couple that were both 21 and had been married two years and had a kid already — and that it was not an uncommon occurence, especially given the nature of the job and the age at which it is entered into.
I agree however that the ending didn’t give me much closure, although it seems clear that a lot of time passes in the last couple minutes of the film (that is, from Maguire’s character’s little incident with the police up until the end). This seems like another one of those movies that is difficult to market, so in cutting trailers together, they give you the entire story, so all that you get are the powerfully dramatic moments in between, which is somewhat disappointing.
I guess to sum it all up, I’d say if you see one film dealing with the casualties of war this awards season, see The Messenger. It’s excellent.
@ Matt
good point about the marines/army being seperate divisions.
The whole having to beat his buddy to death with a pipe.
Yea it’s an extreme situation. But, sorry people in general are not brave (i dont care if your a soldier or a cashier at wal mart it applies to EVERYBODY).
MOST people (not all but the vast majority) will, when confronted with their own death (especially if it’s slow through torture etc. not just a quick shot to the head or something) will do ANYTHING asked of them to even prolong their life for… sometimes minutes.
So while it doesn’t necesarily make Toby’s character one deserving of symapthy I think it’s a somewhat realistic portrayal of crap that can happen.
@MergedLoki
It’s true that people in general are terrible cowards but I have met many soldiers and will be leaving for bootcamp myself in about three months, and i can honestly say I don’t really see any of them taking a pipe to a friend over a slow and painful death. Perhaps I am deluding myself and my distaste for a character in a movie I haven’t seen is really just transference but I like to think not.
I liked this movie very much. I think it is a much better description of the war and it’s consequences than The Hurt Locker.