For once, I am glad that the movie does not live up to the trailer. The ad campaign for Brothers makes the film out to be a bombastic melodrama. It's true that director Jim Sheridan (Get Rich or Die Tryin') and screenwriter David Benioff (X-Men Origins: Wolverine) can get a little heavy-handed at times, but the movie itself also holds a lot of quiet power and captivating performances by its three lead stars. The movie is a remake of a Danish film, unseen by me. That's something I plan to correct, having seen this film.

The brothers of the title are Sam (Tobey Maguire) and Tommy (Jake Gyllenhaal). As the film opens, fate has brought them to different points in their lives. Sam is a decorated Marine, about to leave for another tour of duty in Afghanistan. He's more or less living the American Dream. He married his high school sweetheart, Grace (Natalie Portman), and has two lovely young daughters (Bailee Madison and Taylor Geare) as well as a large home. Their father, Hank (Sam Shepard), a former military man himself, holds all of his love and pride for Sam, while Tommy is more or less regarded as the black sheep of the family, and is treated with thinly-veiled scorn and contempt by Hank. Tommy has just been released from prison after trying to hold up a bank a few years ago. He's frequently drunk, and has long stopped hoping that he will ever live up to Sam in his family's eyes. He stops by the occasional family get together, but usually only shows up when he needs money or needs to be bailed out of trouble.

During Sam's most recent tour in Afghanistan, his helicopter is shot down, and he is presumed dead. He somehow survived, along with a fellow soldier named Joe Willis (Patrick Flueger), but they are both now being held captive by the Taliban, where they endure months of torture. Believing Sam to be dead, Grace and Tommy begin a guarded friendship. Tommy initially wants to be there to comfort his brother's wife (and maybe seek some comfort himself for the turmoil going through his mind over the loss of his brother), but before long, he bonds with her two children, and soon with Grace. Tommy obviously fills a gap in Grace's life, as well as her daughters, but it's never quite certain if the feelings that develop are out of love, or out of necessity, as neither Grace or Tommy want to face their grief alone. Nonetheless, a sexual tension between the two is formed. It's about this time that Sam is rescued from confinement, and is brought home. He is a changed man, though. His home, his family, and even his brother seem foreign to him. Like many who return from war, he is uncertain how to adjust back to a normal life.

We can see it in Sam's eyes. He looks at everything with haunted eyes that just can't comprehend what he's seeing. His daughters may as well be total strangers, and when he hugs them, we can sense him holding back. He also senses the tension between Grace and Tommy, but doesn't know how to register it. Much like The Hurt Locker, Brothers does not have a political agenda, and merely looks at the trials of being a soldier. The earlier film dealt with how soldiers deal with the chaos around them when they're in battle. This movie looks at the conflicting feelings upon coming home. When Sam returns to his town, the media builds his story up as a miracle, and the locals proclaim him a hero. He finds himself in a situation where the beliefs of the people all around him, and the truth of what happened in that prison camp, are in direct conflict with each other. The film is honest in the way that it handles Sam, and the empty shell he becomes after his experiences on the battlefield. It manages to avoid cheap melodrama, and instead gives us a quiet and reflective look at a man who was trained to be a soldier, but doesn't know how to turn that training off when the time comes.

This topic has been covered in many films, but the movie finds the right tone here. It is bleak, without being overbearing. There is always a small glimmer of hope, and the film's somewhat open-ended conclusion provides no real answers, but the possibility that maybe someday things will be right again. The performances find the right tone, as well. Tobey Maguire has probably the toughest role as Sam, as he has to transform gradually during the course of the film. It's certainly believable. We feel like we're watching his mental slide, so it doesn't feel rushed or forced. Jake Gyllenhaal and Sam Shepard also impress, as a father and son who have always resented one another, and don't know how to comfort or even talk to each other during their loss. Like everything else, there are no easy answers for them, and they don't have the cliched moment where they bond. They come close a few times, but it never quite comes. Natalie Portman rounds out the fine cast, in what is probably her best performance in quite a while. It is subtle, yet commanding, as she tries to sort out her feelings of the man her husband has become, and what it is doing to everyone around her.
I was quite surprised by the emotional power of Brothers, given that the trailer almost seemed to show the entire film condensed into two minutes. There's quite a lot of substance to be found, as well as rewarding performances. If the climax of the movie seems a little staged and over the top, it makes up for it with a poignant closing scene that leaves you satisfied without wrapping everything up neat and tidy. This is a surprisingly skillful movie all around.

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