Brothers (2009)

War isn’t over when it ends.  Brothers, adapted from a 2004 Danish film (Brødre) of the same name, tells the moving story of how one family seeks peace after their soldier comes home.

The titular brothers of the film are Sam and Tommy Cahill, who, aside from their equally piercing blue eyes (my congratulations to the casting director), could not be more dissimilar.  Sam (Tobey Maguire) is a decorated Marine captain, loving husband, and devoted father.  His younger brother, Tommy (Jake Gyllenhaal), is an ex-convict with no job and no real ties except to the brother that he quietly idolizes. 

Everyone in the family knows which brother is more valuable, too.  Over a bittersweet dinner that is meant to be both Sam’s send-off for another tour in Afghanistan (his fourth) and Tommy’s homecoming from jail, their alcoholic Vietnam vet dad (Sam Shepard) flat out tells the younger of his two sons that he doesn’t measure up.  From the resentment – mingled with more than just a little self-loathing – that bubbles to the surface of Tommy’s face, it’s clear that it’s a comparison he’s been losing at his whole life. 

Perhaps that’s why he’s so eager to step up to the plate after Sam is shot down over Afghanistan and he presumed dead.  At only the slightest hint from dear old dad, Tommy undertakes a kitchen renovation project to try to cheer up grief-stricken Grace.  His frequent visits prove to be the healing-touch that Grace and her two young daughters need.  As the months roll by, Tommy and Grace’s once contentious relationship develops.  And over marijuana and Springsteen, they forge a deeper bond. 

The exact nature of their bond gets called into question when Sam, who has not been dead but an Al Qaeda prisoner of war, returns home.  Through frequent crosscuts from the home front to the Afghan countryside, the audience gets glimpses of the horrors he and another captured soldier (Patrick Flueger) have been forced to endure and commit in order to survive.  So when Sam comes home, he’s not the same man at all.  With the brothers’ roles reversed, Sam becomes filled with resentment about his inadequacy and begins to suspect Grace of cheating.

Directed by Jim Sheridan (My Left Foot) with a screenplay adapted by David Benioff (Kite Runner) from the original script by Susanne Bier, Brothers excels during the quiet moments.  The dialogue writing is clumsy and frequently veers into heavy-handed and didactic territory, but talk-free scenes like the one in which Grace, in a jovial mood at first, breaks down in Sam’s closet while trying to find a change of clothes for one of the kitchen renovators speaks volumes. 

It’s a testament to Portman’s expanding talent as an actress.  Although she at first seems impossibly young and pretty for the role, she transforms from happy housewife to grieving widow to terrified woman with ease and without the need for prosthetic ugly devices.  How disappointing that Benioff’s script doesn’t give her more opportunities to shine.

Gyllenhaal also masters his conversion from drunken drifter to would-be dad effortlessly.  It’s a nuanced performance that shows his understanding of the resentment, hero worship, grief, and relief that his character feels.  His portrayal is tender-yet-restrained, and his Tommy never tries to copy Sam but relishes the chance to be out of his brother’s oversized shadow. 

Maguire himself casts a sizeable one over this film.  As his body shrinks from buff to malnourished, the intensity of his performance grows exponentially.  As with Portman, I wondered if he was too young for this role, but it was gratifying to see him cast off the adolescent web shooting of Peter Parker in favor of weightier things.  It was gratifying, too, to see him handle Sam’s buildup towards his breakdown with such discipline.

That breakdown happens late in the film when the Cahills sit down to another family meal.  This one, a birthday dinner for the their youngest daughter and a celebration of Sam’s homecoming, is like a negative reflection of the first.  Now it’s Sam who’s uncomfortably quiet until his anger spills out and all over his eldest daughter, played with a precocious knack for realism by Bailee Madison.  In both scenes, though, the truth can be found in the things that are left unsaid, in the artful dodging that happens at many an American dinner table.

The truth is that war isn’t over when it ends.  Not for Grace, who can’t rid herself of the constant reminders of her husband, including the letter that she refuses to open.  Not for Sam, whose scars are permanent and more than skin-deep.  Not for any member of the Cahill family.

And not for the audience of Brothers.

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