Directed by Jim Sheridan
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Brothers
The
new entry in this year’s Academy Awards race isn’t new at all;
it’s the American remake – almost shot by shot -- of the 2004
film written and directed by the Danish director Susanne Bier, also called
“Brothers,” and although I normally frown on remakes, I think it
shows just how well American actors can do. It’s the story of two brothers
from a typical small town. One of
them, Sam – played by Tobey Maguire – is a captain in the Marines
who’s just being sent to Afghanistan. His brother Tommy, played by Jake Gyllenhaal – has been the family screwup, and as the film begins, has just been released
from prison. Sam
is married to Grace, an amazing performance by Natalie Portman, and has two
little girls, while Tommy lives under the disapproving comments of his
father, the ex-marine Hank, played by the playwright Sam Shepard. Then the family gets the news that Sam
has been killed in Afghanistan, though the film quickly tells us that
he’s actually been captured by the Taliban. While everyone in the family thinks
Sam is dead, Tommy begins to help Grace around the house, and makes a
wonderful relationship with her two girls. The film cuts back and forth between
Tommy and Grace, on the one hand, and the tortures Sam undergoes as a
captive. Then
Sam is rescued by the Americans, but he’s been brutally changed by what
he’s undergone; and he comes home with what you have to call an extreme
case of PTSD, and everything that he’d had before – everything
that he’d been before -- is
gone. “Brothers”
tells us what happens then, but what is the most memorable part of the film
is the extraordinary acting by Gyllenhaal, Maguire
and Portman. Director Jim
Sheridan, who’d made “In America” and the wonderful
“My Left Foot,” has managed to get mesmerizing performances from
his three actors.
“Brothers” is hard to sit through, particularly after last
week’s announcement by President Obama that he’s sending thirty
thousand more troops to Afghanistan, but it’s become essential viewing. |