He aint heavy, he's my brother.

Brothers tells the the story of Sam (Tobey Maguire) and Tommy (Jake Gyllenhaal), two brothers who couldn't be more different. Sam is a U.S. Army Captain about to leave for Afghanistan. He is married to Grace (Natalie Portman) and they have two beautiful little girls. Tommy, on the other hand is the family fuck up. He just got out of prison for doing something which is never explained and he is a borderline alcoholic. Despite all that, the two brothers love each other very much and would do anything for each other.

Unfortunately, Grace receives the news of Sam's death in Afghanistan. Realizing he's left without the only person who gave a damn about him, Tommy practically moves in takes care of Grace and becomes a father figure to the girls.

Now, it isn't much of a spoiler when I say that it turns out Sam isn't actually dead (It's in the trailer) and he comes back to find that the relationship between Tommy and Grace may have blossomed into something deeper...

Based on the Danish film by the same name, Brothers was directed by Jim Sheridan who is a master at dealing with complex family relationships. With films like In the name of the father, The boxer, My left foot and my personal favorite of his, In America, Sheridan proved he understands how families work. He knows the manerisms, how people talk to each other, gets the emotions. So what happened with Brothers?

The biggest problem with this film is that it feels very scripted and fake. In order for a film like this to work, you need give the audience something to relate to, so that when they see it they feel that the situation presented to them is possible in the real world.Brothers tries VERY hard to achieve that but feels bogus pretty much every step of the way.

There are a number of scenes which are a retread of other films. There's the hard ass father (Sam Shepard) who idolizes Sam but can't stand the sight of Tommy. There's the obligatory montage of Tommy, Grace and the girls bonding during an ice skating session. There's the obligatory scene where Sam starts acting like a mad man during a family dinner because hey... He has PTSP. In short, you can see everything coming a mile away and the characters act a certain simply because the script demands it.

Another problem is that at a petty short 100 minutes Brothers wastes time on scenes like Sam in a P.O.W. camp where he is forced to do something terrible to survive. Stuff like this seems very out of place and as a result the scenes after Sam gets home and has to confront Tommy and Grace are rushed and aren't fleshed out very well. Why? The movie has to be over.

Just about the only thing saving this thing from pure boredom are terrific performances by the three leads.

Tobey Maguire, Jake Gyllenhaal and (especially) Natalie Portman give it their all in a script unworthy of their talent. They really inhabit their characters and despite the before mentioned contrived plot devices of the script do the best they can and in individual scenes succeed very well.

At the end of the day, Brothers is a major disappointment that could have and should have been a great movie but ended up a bit above a standard Hallmark drama.

Because of the performances it may be an OK rental on a Sunday night or when you can’t sleep and you come across it while channel surfing on cable. In the meantime save your money or hard disk space.

Btw, did anybody notice this plot device was used once before in Pearl harbor…?