Brothers

If you have any brothers then you know how annoying it can be to have to put up with them all the time. Well, this movie isn't much different than that annoying brother.

If you couldn't pick up on it by its title, Brothers is about, well, brothers. The older brother, Captain Tommy Cahill ( played by Tobey Maguire ), goes missing in Afghanistan and is declared dead shortly afterwards. Meanwhile, back home in Minnesota, the younger brother ( played by Jake Gyllenhaal ) is fresh out of prison and comes to comfort Maguire's immediate family only to fall in love with his newly widowed wife. All that seems fine and dandy but when Maguire's character is found alive and brought back home, all you-know-what breaks loose. 

 This film has the perfect setup for what could have been a really good dramatic thriller: A cast of good actors who definitely could pull something like this off and an interesting storyline. So why, if it has the basis for a really good movie, does this movie not deliver? There are many reasons. For one, the direction in this film was terrible. The director never takes any risks or does anything that could possibly make this film more enjoyable to watch; instead, we get stuck with boring shots of everybody's faces as they talk.

Another reason this film doesn't deliver is becausse the actors didn't seem too into their roles and were obviously just there for the money. Maguire's character is supposed to be suffering from post-traumatic stress AND he has to deal with what is going on between his wife and his brother so this should bring out his emotional side. Sure he yells a lot and smashes things up but it wasn't enough to stirr up the emotions. Gyllenhaal should be a professional in this kind of film and yet his character still seemed boring ( as most of the characters in this film are ).

Thirdly, this movie supposed to be about the two brothers and it doesn't feel that way. This movie feels like it rushes through to tell the story. It starts and we get a few minutes of meeting Maguire, even less with Gyllenhaal, Maguire goes off to war and disappears, Gyllenhaal comes to the rescue, we get a few cuts to Maguire's character in captivity, then Maguire comes home, and by that time everything feels so worn out that you kinda just want it to end and by the time it finally does, nothing is resolved.

Overall this film is just boring and probably was only worth the one dollar that I spent on renting it. It is sad that this movie doesn't come near its potential and that we get stuck with this.

Disregaurd this movie.

P.S.

   Narration does not work in this film.