Brothers (Tobey McGuire, Jane Gyllenhaal, Natalie Portman, Sam Shepard, Mare Winningham) – I suppose that only a veteran of war really knows what it’s like to come home, particularly if they have been a POW or killed people. And only the families of those veterans can truly know what it’s like to deal with those returning veterans. Brothers tries to place us in the midst of it all. As the title implies, the story focuses on two brothers, Sam (Tobey McGuire) and Tommy (Jake Gyllenhaal). Sam is a captain, an ideal Marine, loving husband and father, and the pride of his parents (played by exceptional actors San Shepard and Mare Winningham). Tommy is a screw-up, having been in jail as the movie begins. His father, a former Marine officer, can barely look at him. He loves his family, but he is lost, unfocused, and a bit jealous of his more successful sibling. The movie opens as Sam prepares to head back to Afghanistan, much to the chagrin of his wife, Grace (portrayed by a radiant Natalie Portman), and two daughters.
The action shifts quickly to Afghanistan where the helicopter carrying Sam is shot down. He is declared dead, and we agonizingly watch the family deal with his death. Even Tommy is moved by it all, taking on household tasks for Grace and serving as surrogate father for the kids. While the relationship between Grace and Tommy becomes closer, a romance seems inevitable. Just when we think the movie will come to a logical ending, we’re transported back to Afghanistan, where we see Sam and a private in his unit being transported as prisoners to a remote location by a local militia. What happens next is painful, but it is quite watchable for those of you who hate to see brutality on the screen. Sam is eventually rescued, and the word gets back to the family that, incredibly, he is alive.
The homecoming is where the movie hits its stride. This becomes a painful family drama, which culminates in two wonderful scenes – on at the family dinner table and one in the kitchen of Sam and Grace’s house. The performances by all the featured players are Oscar-worthy, particularly McGuire, Gyllenhaal and Shepard. Portman is wonderful but the part isn’t written as well as the others. If I have a criticism of the movie, it revolves around the fact that we’re manipulated into believing that Sam is dead, funeral and all. If he were missing in action, the film would head in an entirely different direction yet that is exactly what should have happened. The Marines never would have declared him dead this quickly without a body. But this is just quibbling. Brothers is a deep family drama and a study into the effects war has on soldiers and their families.