Plot: Sam Cahill, a soldier (Toby Maguire) is captured in Afghanistan and is presumed dead. Grace, his wife (Natalie Portman) and brother Tommy (Jake Gyllenhaal) get together while he is gone and after he is rescued there is an awkward love triangle. Sam was tortured and has post-tramatic stress, so he is emotionally distant and violent.
Review: Brothers is a thin, manipulative melodrama with little meaning beyond its calculated emotional trap. The first hour of the move marches through the story line slowly and mechanically to get the love-triangle set-up. The entire Afghanistan story line is boring and empty with no insight into the prisoner experience nor the reason for the war -- simply a footnote When Sam is released, there is barely any interest in Sam's interior life, just the love story. Similarly loser Brother Tommy suddenly becomes a noble citizen to sharpen up his appeal to Grace.
Natalie Portman's Grace is the only bright spot in this dreary film. There is a wonderful moment when Grace hears that Sam is still alive on the phone. We see realistic facial expressions of disbelief, happiness and fear -- top notch. She had two or three of these brief moments of outstanding facial acting, for example when she kissed Tommy for the first time. Portman shows she is a skilled actress, and I'd like to see her in a better movie.
Cast:Natalie Portman, Toby Maguire, Jake Gyllenhaal
Crew: directed by Jim Sheridan; based on the movie "Brødre" written by Bier and Jensen
Rating: 1 flask: Portman is good enough to make this 1.5 stars, but I hated being at this movie so much, it has to be 1.0
More: I wanted to leave during the middle.
Even more: The most over-rated movie of the year.
Yet more: At the end, the audience jumped up quickly and headed out of the theater like they could not wait to leave.
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