Brothers (Jim Sheridan, 2009)

Brothers, starring Natalie Portman, Jake Gyllenhaal and Tobey Maguire,  is a dramatic portrayal by Jim Sheridan (already praised for his brilliant directing of the movie “In the Name of the Father”) of the cruel reality of many of America’s servicemen and their families, who must learn to cope with the hardship of returning from war and reintegrating themselves in everyday society.
Brothers is the tale of Tommy and Sam, two brothers as different from one another as night and day. Sam is the older, more responsible of the two, who followed in his father’s footsteps and joined the Marines. Married to his high-school sweetheart, Grace, and father of two small girls, Sam, a loyal and patriotic serviceman, is called for another tour of duty in Afghanistan. Tommy, the rebellious and lost brother, the black-sheep of the family, joins his parents and relatives, as he is released from prison, on the night before Sam’s departure.
And so the story unfolds in two parallel worlds – one in small town America in which the family of the devout Sam continue their everyday lives knowing their dear husband, father, son and brother is at war, and one which finds Sam combating the Taliban in snowy-capped, almost lunar looking, mountainous landscapes in Afghanistan.
Then the inevitable happens when Sam and his group of men are shot down by enemy fire while flying over a lake in a helicopter and are taken captives by local tribesmen. After Sam is mistakenly presumed dead, Grace and the whole family are obviously struck by grief and try to come to terms with Sam’s decease.
Sheridan gives a poignant and all too real portrayal of the drama of an ordinary middle-class American family, residing someplace (or which in reality could be anyplace) in small town America, which unfolds gradually as Grace comes to reality with her husband’s death and Tommy finds himself having to take the place of his brother as a surrogate father for his two young nieces and a moral support for his sister-in-law.  All the while, Sam and his fellow comrade must endure the physical and psychological torture inflicted on them by their captors.
The intensity of this family’s drama reaches its climax upon Sam’s return to his ordinary daily life. Haunted not so much by what he has seen, but rather by what he was forced to, Sam does return alive to his family and his previous life, but in fact he is now just the shadow of the man he used to be.  Overwhelmed by an unendurable remorse, he is no longer able to communicate with his loved ones and resume his normal life, while his family is forced to painfully watch the psychological breakdown of their once stoic, strong and reliable father, husband, brother and son.
Sheridan illustrates the interior drama of Sam and his family without ever exaggerating and seems to let that the events and the emotions of his characters naturally flow without ever over-stimulating them.  The almost sober style with which he relates this family’s plight is what makes it almost the more intense and dramatic. The tension – so high-strung, yet which is expressed only through small gestures and glances – is especially perceivable in the relationship between Sam and his older daughter, who during the birthday party of her younger sister deliberately provokes her father but rubbing a balloon and making unwanted noise. A gesture so banal it should be overlooked, but which instead slowly builds on her father’s nervousness and unease until he finally explodes.
Portman, Maguire and Gyllenhaal give stunning performances and naturally interpret each of their character’s own sorrows and grief without ever becoming melodramatic or ridiculous.
The entire film convincingly depicts the sad reality of many of today’s servicemen and women who indeed return alive from their tours of duty in war-stricken Afghanistan but in fact return dead men walking.
JM