Brothers Review

I’m pretty sure there was a period of time years ago when I (and you) thought Tobey Maguire and Jake Gyllenhaal were the same person.

(It’s called the Bill Paxton/Bill Pullman phenomenon and it refers to two celebs who only vaguely look like each other, but get confused for one another all the time for no good reason.)

So I suppose it makes sense that Maguire and Gyllenhaal finally ended up playing siblings in “Brothers”, director Jim Sheridan’s remake of a 2004 Danish drama of the same name.

Maguire plays Capt. Sam Cahill, a Marine with a wife named Grace (Natalie Portman) and two daughters (the excellent Bailee Madison and Taylor Geare) who is about to embark on his fourth tour of duty in Afghanistan. Gyllenhaal plays Tommy Cahill, Sam’s irresponsible brother who just got out of jail.

When Sam’s helicopter is shot down overseas and he is presumed dead, Tommy gradually steps up to help Grace and the two eventually become, um, closer.

I don’t think it’s a major spoiler to say that Sam survives the crash and is captured and imprisoned by the Taliban before eventually being rescued.

Sheridan (“In America”) takes his sweet time in telling his story. This works better for the first half of the flick — when we’re still getting to know the characters and watching their relationships develop (particularly Tommy and Grace’s) — than it does for the final portion. In fact, it appears that Sheridan took so much time in the beginning, that the movie’s final act feels hurried and unsatisfying.

That’s too bad, because Tobey Maguire is kind of excellent in this movie. I’ve always thought he was a decent-to-good actor, but I didn’t really think he had THIS in him.

Right from the very beginning, you can tell Sam doesn’t feel as comfortable at home with his family (even as he playfully wrestles with his daughters) as he is doing his job. Maguire also plays Sam’s initial resolve and harrowing breakdown during his imprisonment equally well. By the time he comes back to the States, Maguire makes him look like a thoroughly disconnected ghost.

Meanwhile, Natalie Portman always looks too young for the role she’s playing. Fortunately, that quality serves her well here, since Grace is understandably overwhelmed by the news of her husband’s death. Though the film is called “Brothers”, I actually would’ve liked to have seen a stronger focus on Grace, since she ends up being the siblings’ focal point. However, the story is more equally divided between Sam and Tommy.

Gyllenhaal is fine as Tommy. I would’ve preferred the character to have been more dark and disturbed than what we got. The way Gyllenhaal played him he was simply a lazy, irresponsible jackass with Jake Gyllenhaal’s puppy dog eyes. I get that the character was supposed to have a good heart, but I would’ve liked to have seen an element of danger from Tommy.

Though the acting is strong overall (including the best child performance I’ve seen this year by Madison and another nice, cranky turn by Sam Shepard) the movie ends up being somewhat sabotaged by a rushed finale. (Sam catches on to Grace and Tommy’s connection almost instantly and things quickly spiral out of control.)

Oh well, at least now we have definitive proof that Tobey Maguire and Jake Gyllenhaal are two different people.

Brothers…B