The trailer for Brothers (which, by the way, basically gave away 5 second chunks from every important scene in the movie) had me waiting for it: I usually really like these kinds of troubling melodramas. This film does have the intended effect of the genre -- however, in a very small dose. It delivers only in the last quarter. The first 2/3 seem confused as to how to make things interesting until the major player returns, and time is spent away in an uneven and often flat tone.
First and biggest complain: did a robot shoot and edit the movie? The camera work is completely static throughout. Now, that is great in the last and very intense quarter, such as the dinner scene, where you are so intensely concentrating on the characters all gathered in a small, uncomfortable space and their interactions. But through the initial 2/3, when Tommy and family is getting close, and Tommy and Grace are getting close, and when the kids are playing in the snow, people are mourning, Sam is suffering, etc, the totally still camera and abrupt scene changes felt really clunky and reluctant, often edging on boring. One second I'd see Tommy playing with the kids, then, blink, Sam's starving in a ditch, then, blink, Tommy's talking to the father. Let me feel something, let it sink in first!
Natalie Portman. I'm not the biggest fan of her, having seen her only good performance way back in Leon. But in this movie she was definitely miscast and at about 10% of her potential-- in other words, her acting is awful here. Her character is already underdeveloped, saying little of the kind of important stuff you feel that she should say, or, heck, say anything at all, since she's pretty quiet throughout of the movie (well, it's not a very loquacious movie after all). But Portman's eyes and face often show no feeling or don't show feeling appropriate to the scene. In one scene Maguire's character, on the verge of breakdown and rage, asks her something like 'do you know what I did?' with a little bit of the psycho in him, and she replies in a very wooden and robotic tone, 'no, I don't'. Similar problems abound when her husband is either trying to vent or reach out. You can't see if she's disappointed in her husband, saddened by his transformation, or yearning for his old self. Often I just didn't see anything there. No thought, no emotion. It's not all bad though. There is one great scene when an army widow admits to having a disturbing dream about Sam. Grace (Portman) notices Sam in the next room, goes up to see him, but she leans against the corner wall so that only some of her face is visible, like she is hiding. It completely shows how she is somewhat frightened of him and that their bond is lost.
Tobey: Hard to believe it's the same actor who played the adorable character in Cider House Rules. And the movie picks up dramatically when he reappears (it seems as if the creators were more excited about the downward spiral than what was happening before it. They should have balanced matters more evenly in the first half, and really formed a full life for the family w/ and w/o Sam). Maguire's face, generally used for cuteness and innocence in CHRules, pleasantville, and spidey movies, has been transformed with great effectiveness here. His large, round, blue eyes surround an emaciated, scarred, shaved head, giving them a bulged, surprised-angry look. When he's come back and is with his family, listening to his daughter telling jokes he can no longer find humor in, he has this stiff, fake smile like he's trying to be kind and good humored under a pretense of total anger and loathing. Visible also when he asks his brother and wife the impossible question. The dinner-balloon scene is where Maguire really shines. You are almost scared for the older daughter, the one Sam is directing his quiet anger towards. And yes, the older child actor is amazing.
Other complaint that I won't go much into: the titular theme of Brotherhood wasn't really established much with relevance to the experiences of each (again, something they could have done more of in the first half). There was also a connection related to this theme with the daughters: how the younger is beloved and spoiled, while the older doesn't get the same showering of affection for whatever reasons. The inadequate foundation on their brotherhood also takes away from the resolution. We know that one rises while the other falls, and that their ties finally save them, but their ties aren't really established fully in the important beginning scenes.
Still, beside the complaints, I thought it was pretty good and the last part saved it for me. I would recommend it for the melodrama, a raging and paranoid Maguire, Jake Gyllenhaal whom I always like, and depiction of war anguish including the fight for survival and the trauma of killing on a normal, sensitive human.
First and biggest complain: did a robot shoot and edit the movie? The camera work is completely static throughout. Now, that is great in the last and very intense quarter, such as the dinner scene, where you are so intensely concentrating on the characters all gathered in a small, uncomfortable space and their interactions. But through the initial 2/3, when Tommy and family is getting close, and Tommy and Grace are getting close, and when the kids are playing in the snow, people are mourning, Sam is suffering, etc, the totally still camera and abrupt scene changes felt really clunky and reluctant, often edging on boring. One second I'd see Tommy playing with the kids, then, blink, Sam's starving in a ditch, then, blink, Tommy's talking to the father. Let me feel something, let it sink in first!
Natalie Portman. I'm not the biggest fan of her, having seen her only good performance way back in Leon. But in this movie she was definitely miscast and at about 10% of her potential-- in other words, her acting is awful here. Her character is already underdeveloped, saying little of the kind of important stuff you feel that she should say, or, heck, say anything at all, since she's pretty quiet throughout of the movie (well, it's not a very loquacious movie after all). But Portman's eyes and face often show no feeling or don't show feeling appropriate to the scene. In one scene Maguire's character, on the verge of breakdown and rage, asks her something like 'do you know what I did?' with a little bit of the psycho in him, and she replies in a very wooden and robotic tone, 'no, I don't'. Similar problems abound when her husband is either trying to vent or reach out. You can't see if she's disappointed in her husband, saddened by his transformation, or yearning for his old self. Often I just didn't see anything there. No thought, no emotion. It's not all bad though. There is one great scene when an army widow admits to having a disturbing dream about Sam. Grace (Portman) notices Sam in the next room, goes up to see him, but she leans against the corner wall so that only some of her face is visible, like she is hiding. It completely shows how she is somewhat frightened of him and that their bond is lost.
Tobey: Hard to believe it's the same actor who played the adorable character in Cider House Rules. And the movie picks up dramatically when he reappears (it seems as if the creators were more excited about the downward spiral than what was happening before it. They should have balanced matters more evenly in the first half, and really formed a full life for the family w/ and w/o Sam). Maguire's face, generally used for cuteness and innocence in CHRules, pleasantville, and spidey movies, has been transformed with great effectiveness here. His large, round, blue eyes surround an emaciated, scarred, shaved head, giving them a bulged, surprised-angry look. When he's come back and is with his family, listening to his daughter telling jokes he can no longer find humor in, he has this stiff, fake smile like he's trying to be kind and good humored under a pretense of total anger and loathing. Visible also when he asks his brother and wife the impossible question. The dinner-balloon scene is where Maguire really shines. You are almost scared for the older daughter, the one Sam is directing his quiet anger towards. And yes, the older child actor is amazing.
Other complaint that I won't go much into: the titular theme of Brotherhood wasn't really established much with relevance to the experiences of each (again, something they could have done more of in the first half). There was also a connection related to this theme with the daughters: how the younger is beloved and spoiled, while the older doesn't get the same showering of affection for whatever reasons. The inadequate foundation on their brotherhood also takes away from the resolution. We know that one rises while the other falls, and that their ties finally save them, but their ties aren't really established fully in the important beginning scenes.
Still, beside the complaints, I thought it was pretty good and the last part saved it for me. I would recommend it for the melodrama, a raging and paranoid Maguire, Jake Gyllenhaal whom I always like, and depiction of war anguish including the fight for survival and the trauma of killing on a normal, sensitive human.