‘Brothers’ is a VERY attractive family drama

Sam Cahill (Tobey Maguire, left), gets consoled by his attractive wife, Grace (Natalie Portman) in ‘Brothers’. (Alliance Films)

In Brothers we see Natalie Portman play Grace Cahill, a loving, dedicated housewife who can cook a mean casserole and raise two girls with maternal and respecting authority. Throughout the movie, people are constantly telling her how beautiful she is – and this basically sums up the whole movie: hot actors who can actually act.

To Portman’s Grace is Sam, portrayed by Tobey Maguire. Rounding out the hot thespian trifecta is Jake Gyllenhaal (there is also a cameo by the fresh-faced and lovely Carey Mulligan from An Education). Normally, seeing people like this would make us feel ugly. They indirectly lower our self-esteem; but the fact that they have some acting chops makes it okay for us to feel unattractive in their cinematic presence.

The movie, based on its Danish predecessor Brødre (directed by Susanne Bier), finds Grace at a colossal loss when Sam is declared dead after going to war in Afghanistan. Tommy, fresh out of prison and sporting an “I’m-a-badass” neck tattoo, softens up after the death of his brother. He starts to fill in that husband void in Grace’s life. If you do the math, you can figure out what happens from there.

After Tommy gets comfy as his role as cool Uncle Tommy, Sam comes back after being rescued from imprisonment (yup, he really wasn’t dead) – but he has some severe post traumatic baggage to bring home. That said, things start getting a tad bit tense up in the Cahill household.

Directed by Jim Sheridan and penned by David Benioff, the title of the film is a tad bit misleading. In the beginning, we definitely see the cliché good son/bad son sibling dynamic. Sam is the breadwinner. He’s the golden boy. Tommy is the screw up who will never live up to the standards that his brother has set – and his father (Sam Shepherd) is constantly there to remind him. Besides that and the gun-wielding standoff in the end, the exploration of brotherly love is minimal. There wasn’t that warm feeling you get when you see bros do the “handshake-pull-in-and-hug” gesture. There wasn’t that much insight into the world of poignant sibling complexities.

The distance in Sam and Tommy’s relationship doesn’t gel with the title of the movie. Instead, there is a heavy focus on the loneliness-driven temptation between Sam and Grace. In fact, Grace seems to be the main course in a movie that’s supposed to orbit around these polar opposite brothers. Despite qualms with the title, it does paint a decent picture of family as a whole and the power of loyalty and loss.

Portman and Gyllenhaal continue to prove that they are some of the best actors of their generation but it was Maguire went a little further in his role as a good Marine husband-turned-psychologically volatile stranger. Was it Oscar-worthy? That’s definitely up for debate.

With beautiful actors and thoughtful direction, Brothers is a good recipe for a dramatic movie. It was just a tad bit undercooked – but I’d eat it anyway because it’s pretty. Grade: C+