Brothers offers powerful, but uncomfortable, viewing
By 
Brothers: Tobey Maguire and Nathalie Portman star in a film where history catches up with the present
BROTHERS (15)
Directed by Jim Sheridan
Starring Tobey Maguire, Jake Gyllenhaal, Natalie Portman
By Lloyd Rundle
The shadow of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq looms large over the cinema at the moment and Brothers is among the more affecting of recent releases, in that it refrains from resorting to patriotic rhetoric and breast-beating, and takes a quieter more nuanced approach. It is all the more powerful for it and makes for highly relevant, if somewhat uncomfortable, viewing.
Nominated for two Golden Globes, this is a remake of a 2004 Danish film, Brødre, by an Irish director, Jim Sheridan, with a US setting and featuring two of Hollywood’s brightest stars – Tobey Maguire and Jake Gyllenhaal – in the central roles. However, possibly because of its European origins, this is not your typical Hollywood fare.
Mostly set in or around a blue-collar home, Brothers tells the story of two siblings, thirty-something Captain Sam Cahill (Maguire) and younger brother Tommy Cahill (Gyllenhaal), who are polar opposites. A marine, about to embark on his fourth tour of duty, Sam is a steadfast family man married to his high school sweetheart, Grace (Natalie Portman), with whom he has two young daughters.
His younger brother Tommy, on the other hand, is a drifter just out of jail who’s survived thus far on wit and charm alone. Sam is, as it were, the high-achieving do-gooder and the apple of his retired-marine father’s eye — played by the actor-playwright Sam Shepard – while Tommy is the ne’er do well sliding all too easily into his role as family provocateur and black sheep.
After shipping out to Afghanistan, Sam is presumed dead when his Black Hawk helicopter is shot down in the mountains. At home in suburbia, the Cahill family suddenly faces a shocking void, and Tommy tries to fill in for his brother by assuming new found responsibility for himself, Grace, and the children. However, when Sam returns home he can’t let go of the things that happened to him while in captivity.
In an uncharacteristically volatile and withdrawn state, a nervous mood settles over the family – and the audience – as Maguire seems on the verge of either explosion or collapse at any moment. His suspicion that his wife may have cheated on him with his brother only adds to his paranoia and the sense of unease for all involved.
A world way from the Spider-Man role that made him famous, Maguire stands out in performance of three parts — from a happy family man to a professional soldier in the field to, finally, a broken man haunted by his actions and suspicious of those around him.
There are no easy answers to the questions posed. The effects of post-traumatic stress disorder do not play out as we would expect — Sam is not a lunatic but a man struggling with extreme emotions he cannot comprehend in a home which no longer feels like his own. That we’ve seen him as the loving father makes the later portrayal of his as a broken man more painfully human. The implied threat of his behaviour around his family rather than being played out operatically is kept in check and when the inevitable explosion does come there is no resolution — therein lies the most painful aspect. As Sam says: “I have seen the end of war – the question is can I live again?”
Gyllenhaal in a role that on paper would seem the easier one — that of the punk kid who redeems himself — also delivers a well-timed performance. His story arc goes in the opposite direction and it makes for a less dramatic but, on reflection, equally well-defined change. Portman, as well, undergoes a transformation and, while at first playing it cool with Tommy, we can understand her attraction towards him after Sam goes missing. Maguire and Gyllenhaal make for convincing brothers, which makes Tommy and Grace’s mutual attraction all the more painful.
One minor quibble is that Portman seems too angelic to be a suburban housewife and mother and this is perhaps a little distracting. But beyond that her performance is disciplined and well-timed. Among the supporting players, Sheridan draws remarkable performances from the two child actors of the piece, Bailee Madison and Taylor Grace Geare. With Sam a ticking time bomb, his exchanges with his daughters make for unsettling viewing and their responses are entirely believable, funny and sometimes hurtful.
Having previously helmed My Left Foot, In The Name Of The Father and The Boxer which dealt with similar themes of men in crisis, Sheridan’s restrained direction works overall to good effect here. The middle section of the film which juxtaposes scenes set in Afghanistan with those back home is perhaps a little uneven. This is essentially a theatrical piece played out for the cameras around dinner tables and in kitchens. Seeing the horrors Sam is forced to endure while in captivity in some sense deflates them, making them in some way less terrifying.
The elliptical dialogue conveys a sense of emotional turbulence under the surface where so much needs to be said and isn’t — which makes for a frustrating and alarmingly real experience. Brothers calls to mind post-Vietnam movies such as Hal Ashby’s Coming Home and Michael Cimino’s The Deer Hunter but what is remarkable is that they were made in the wake of that war.
Here history has finally caught up to us with films now being made about a current conflict and its effect upon our lives at home.
Brothers touches a raw nerve — the wound is still fresh and in our minds. It is a frustrating, sometimes baffling, and not always satisfying film that offers no easy answers. But as a timely reflection on a very present conflict, it will stay with you for a long time to come.
Brothers is out now — to find out what else is on in Bristol, visit our listings page here…
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