Brothers

Director: Jim Sheridan
Cast: Tobey Maguire, Jake Gyllenhaal, Natalie Portman and Sam Shepard
Releasing in cinemas: 18 March 2010
Rated: M

Rare breed

This Hollywood remake of the 2004 Danish film Brodre remains fairly faithful to Susanne Bier’s original, and it retains much of the same darker tone and emotional impact. Irish director Jim Sheridan (My Left Foot) imbues his remake with some highly polished and slick production values that contrast with the rough visual style and improvised nature of the original. Brothers deals with themes common to many of his other films – family, guilt, loyalty, honour, etc.

Sam Cahill (Tobey Maguire) is a US marine who is married with two young daughters. His younger brother Tommy (Jake Gyllenhaal) is the black sheep of the family, a petty criminal and convicted felon, who has just been released from jail. “Your brother is a hero,” his father (Sam Shepard), a former Vietnam veteran, angrily reminds him at a tense family gathering. Sam returns to Afghanistan for another tour of duty. But when his helicopter is shot down and he is presumed dead, Tommy steps up to show some responsibility in holding the family together.

A strong bond develops between Tommy and Grace (Natalie Portman) and her two children. Tommy also does odd jobs around the house. But then after a period Sam is found alive, a prisoner of the Taliban. He returns home, but the dynamics of this once harmonious domestic situation are drastically altered by his presence. Sam has been left psychologically scarred and traumatised by what he witnessed and was forced to do in order to survive as a captive of the Taliban. His readjustment is hard. His oldest daughter Isabelle (Bailee Madison) is scared of him, and Grace finds herself walking on eggshells due to Sam’s volatile mood swings and his self-destructive behaviour. Sam is also driven by paranoia and suspicion about the depth of the relationship that developed between Grace and Tommy during his absence.

Sheridan draws strong performances from his three leads. A suitably gaunt and haunted Maguire gives his strongest performance as Sam, and he taps into darker territory. Gyllenhaal is well cast here, and is sympathetic as the bad brother who redeems himself. And Portman is the film’s emotional core with her moving performance as the woman caught between two brothers.

David Benioff (The Kite Runner, 25th Hour), has adapted the original Danish screenplay, and he brings a tough edge to the material. Sheridan injects a brutal realism into those scenes in Afghanistan. He draws a strong contrast between those scenes in which Sam is held prisoner and tortured by the Taliban and the scenes of domestic bliss back home, as Tommy reluctantly becomes the man of the house.

Brothers is one of those rarities – a Hollywood adaptation of a European film that actually does justice to the material.

Greg King

Read more of Greg King's reviews at filmreviews.net.au