Iraq and Afghanistan have been the focal point for many movies this year, some of them excellent, almost all of them depressing. "Brothers," a new film from director Jim Sheridan ("My Left Foot") is the latest, but he and writer David Benioff use the Middle East as a device, not a necessity. The plot could have been used in any stressful situation, not necessarily a war zone, but the five-year-old Danish film, "Brodre," from which this one is taken, involves a war.
Tobey Maguire is Sam Cahill, a gung-ho Marine like his father, a Vietnam veteran played stylishly, as always, by Sam Shepard. Jake Gyllenhall is his younger brother, Tommy, recently released from prison. Sam, an officer, wants to return to the Middle East and his men, and does, but he soon is captured and tortured in sequences that are frightening in their intensity.
During his captivity, the Marines have told his wife that he is dead.
However, he is rescued and returns home, where he discovers that Tommy seems to have his life back in order, remodeling Sam's kitchen, bonding with his children, taking care of his wife, a badly underwritten role for Natalie Portman. The children, played by Bailee Madison and Taylor Geare, are simply wonderful, and a tribute to director Sheridan.
Sam is a physical and emotional mess, but he's a gung-ho Marine and doesn't want psychological help, he wants to return to combat.
And, of course, he's certain that Portman and Gyllenhaal have been having an affair, so the baggage cart just gets heavier and heavier. The drama is overpowering, sometimes overwhelming, but rarely satisfactory.
On multiple screens.
–Joe