Review - Brothers

Brothers stars Toby Maguire as a Captain in the marines getting ready to head off to Afghanistan (Sam), Natalie Portman as Toby's wife (Grace), and Jake Gyllenhaal as Toby's brother who just got out of prison (Tommy). That's the setup. I'm going to have to spoil a little bit of the movie to even talk about it, but don't worry, I'm only spoiling about the first 15 minutes. The gist of it is that Sam goes to Afghanistan and gets shot down. The military then shows up to tell Grace the news of her husbands death. Tommy tries to help Grace and her children out while also trying to get his life back together after being in prison.

If you've seen the trailer for the movie, you should know it actually spoils a very large part of the story. However, it spoils it in an extremely misleading way, and makes the movie look like something that it isn't. So if you saw the trailer like me, don't worry, even though you know some big plot points, they aren't what they seem to be.

When the movie first started, I couldn't get into the characters at all. I kept just seeing Natalie Portman, Spider Man, and Donnie Darko. I couldn't get away from it. However, about 15 minutes into the film it all clicked and I was seeing them for their actual characters. This has a lot to do with the amazing acting in the movie, especially from Natalie and Jake. I don't think they deserve awards, but maybe some nominations. They were honestly very very good.

The movie itself was gripping as well. It isn't a typical movie in the sense that you have a protagonist, a conflict that hinders the protagonist from their goal, and a resolution. Instead, Brothers is more of a look into an interesting segment of a few peoples lives. You start the movie out when a new section in their lives is starting, and the movie ends when that section is over. There is no celebration or extremely happy ending. There is no good and evil and everything seems rather gray. The movie is simply about the lives of 3 individuals and how they deal with the extremely emotional circumstances that they are thrown into. I guess what I'm trying to say is that Brothers is more about the characters themselves and less about the story.

I can't really say anything negative about Brothers. Nothing jumped out at me to cause me to cringe. Everything seemed very good. Great? Not great, but good. The soundtrack was good, the acting was great, the story was predictable but told in a very realistic and unique way, the script was good... nothing in Brothers was noticeably flawed, or at least I didn't care to notice. It was all just good. And I'm very glad I went to go see it. I probably won't see it again, but that's not because I felt anything negative towards it. It just felt like a one-watcher. And it's worth the one-watch if you like awards season dramas.

Potential Based on Preview: 7/10
Actual Movie: 8.5/10

NOTE: There or only 2 more movies I plan on seeing this year - Avatar and Up in the Air. Once I've seen those, I'll be able to finalize the "Favorites of 2009" list I've been working on.