According to the fountain of wisdom that is urbandictionary.com, “cheesy” is a term for something that is “trying too hard, unsubtle, and inauthentic”. If you want a more graphic illustration of the essence of cheesiness, all you have to do is rock down to your local cineplex and catch a screening of “Brothers”. A shame, really, because this film had the potential to be something special.

Its premise – lifted from a Danish drama made in 2004 – is certainly interesting. The story revolves around brothers Sam Cahill (Tobey Maguire), an exemplary family man and well-respected captain in the US Marine Corps, and his brother Tommy (Jake Gyllenhaal), a convicted criminal who has just got out of jail for armed robbery.

When Sam is shot down and wrongly presumed dead during a tour of duty in Afghanistan, Tommy steps up to take care of his sister-in-law Grace (Natalie Portman) and her two daughters. Inevitably, Tommy and Grace begin to develop feelings for each other. When Sam returns home after a nightmarish stint as a POW, the psychological scars he brings with him are made worse by the suspicion that his wife and brother have had an affair. The brothers swap roles, with Tommy assuming responsibility for the well-being of the family while Sam becomes increasingly unstable.   

In addition to this plot packed with possibility, the movie boasts a cast that is clearly at the classier end of the A-list. It receives what should be a definitive boost with the presence of Sam Shepard as the two brothers’ damaged Vietnam War veteran father. And director Jim Sheridan’s credentials as a master of complex family stories (In the Name of The Father, The Boxer, In America) carry the promise of a riveting domestic meltdown film.

So what has gone wrong? Firstly, Sheridan completely fumbles the tone of his movie, especially during the crucial scenes when Sam is away from home. At this point the film descends into a corny domestic soap opera, with a soundtrack to match. This is contrasted with the brutal dilemmas that Sam faces as a POW at the mercy of Afghan insurgents, a plotline which serves up some quite powerful cinema, but also helps highlight the inadequacies of the central home front aspect of the film.  

Another problem is the way that Gyllenhaal’s character is written. Objectively speaking, Tommy has much to gain from his brother’s death. It offers him a path to redemption and gives him access to the hearts of an adorable woman and two loving children. Instead of going with this and bestowing the character with a starker inner conflict, the script chickens out and has Tommy perform an almost overnight psychological U-turn, from unscrupulous hard case to almost unimpeachable nice guy. Even when he slips up and betrays the memory of his brother he is able to stand back, take a good look at himself and right the wrongs in time.  

The film’s main blunder, however, is that it gets caught in no-man’s land in terms of what it wants to say to the world. It tries to make a point about how organised violence destroys innocent lives, even those which are lived far from the battlefield. Fair enough, but it does so with the unwarranted addendum that, if those who practice such violence learn to ask forgiveness for their mistakes, the world we live in might eventually become a better place. Humans have been doing the same dreadful stuff to each other, generation upon generation, for so long. How is that even conceivable as a proposition?

Although “Brothers” is a disappointment, it would be unfair to say that it is all bad. There are one or two things that make it work despite its flaws. Chief amongst these is the performance on display by Tobey Maguire, without a shadow of a doubt his best work to date. Maguire’s uncompromising portrayal of a man engulfed by darkness works well alongside a very solid turn by Natalie Portman. Some will say she has been miscast as a suburban, blue-collar housewife, but she brings a warmth to the part which is subtle and genuine and generally non-cheesy.

All in all, a missed opportunity.

Rating: **

Starring: Jake Gyllenhaal, Natalie Portman, Tobey Maguire, Sam Shepard, Bailee Madison, Clifton Collins Jr.
Director: Jim Sheridan
Run time: 104 mins
Certificate: UK 15 | US R
Release date: 22nd January 2010


Review by Alex Diaz

If it's more war trauma you want, you can't beat The Hurt Locker. For some clever drama we recommend A Prophet.