{"id":6697,"date":"2010-01-11T10:17:12","date_gmt":"2010-01-11T18:17:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/g9r.3b8.myftpupload.com\/?p=6697"},"modified":"2010-01-11T12:21:01","modified_gmt":"2010-01-11T20:21:01","slug":"brothers-jim-sheridan-2009-usa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/g9r.3b8.myftpupload.com\/?p=6697","title":{"rendered":"Brothers (Jim Sheridan, 2009): USA"},"content":{"rendered":"

Reviewed by Kathleen Amboy<\/a>.\u00a0 Viewed at the Riviera.<\/p>\n

\"\"\u00a0\u00a0Brothers<\/a><\/em>\u00a0is a film about a\u00a0military hero who is preparing to depart on a fourth tour of duty in Afghanistan,\u00a0while his\u00a0ex-con brother,\u00a0\u00a0recently released from prison,\u00a0has zero\u00a0ambition\u00a0in his life.<\/p>\n

Tobey Maguire plays Capt. Sam Cahill, a\u00a0considerate husband to his wife Grace\u00a0(Natalie Portman),\u00a0and loving father of two young daughters.\u00a0 His younger brother is Tommy Cahill (Jake Gyllenhaal), an all around loser just released from prison for armed robbery.\u00a0 The two brothers are close and loving to each other, despite being opposites.<\/p>\n

Grace can barely tolerate Tommy’s presence in her home, while their father Hank (Sam Shepard) has very little use for\u00a0this son\u00a0at all.\u00a0 Sam is called to duty, his helicopter crashes, and his widow is notified.<\/p>\n

Suddenly Tommy shapes up, gives Widow Grace a brand new kitchen, plays surrogate daddy to the two kids, and\u00a0the relationship with\u00a0Father Hank\u00a0miraculously heals.\u00a0 Meanwhile,\u00a0Capt. Cahill\u00a0and his subordinate\u00a0Private Willis, have been captured and are being tortured.<\/p>\n

Do you see where I’m going with this?\u00a0 The writing\/directing leaves a lot to be desired.\u00a0 Everything is wrapped up nice and tidy\u00a0in the first half of the film, setting us (the audience), up\u00a0for what’s about to transpire in the second half.\u00a0 Nothing new, and fairly predictable – my disbelief just wasn’t suspended – I felt like a member of the audience, being set up.<\/p>\n

Mom Grace,\u00a0 newly-widowed sister-in-law, who loathed the presence of her brother-in-law (moments before) now is so lonely for Husband Sam, she welcomes the ex-con into her home with her children.\u00a0\u00a0She is also shown tossing and turning in bed, in order to confirm\u00a0later dialogue with Sam in which she tells him “I\u00a0couldn’t even get out of bed.” \u00a0 Dad Hank, who previously\u00a0hated the sight of\u00a0his younger son\u00a0(a few\u00a0scenes prior) is\u00a0soon slapping\u00a0him on the back with praise.\u00a0 The two little girls who\u00a0never knew\u00a0their uncle Tommy, now have attached themselves to him, and so much so, they’ve\u00a0forgotten about Dad Sam.<\/p>\n

Without giving too much of the plot away, Sam makes it back home\u00a0traumatized, now thinking his brother has moved in on his woman,\u00a0and\u00a0his daughter confirms his increasing\u00a0paranoia.\u00a0 \u00a0Sam goes berserk, and\u00a0with angry retaliation\u00a0he destroys the new kitchen – damn it!\u00a0 Well, needless to say, Sam ends up in the\u00a0loony bin.<\/p>\n

There are some emotionally intense moments, effectively portrayed by Tobey Maguire, and his\u00a0performance pretty much\u00a0justifies the film.\u00a0 Maguire\u00a0is excellent in portraying the war vet with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, and\u00a0he has indeed been nominated for a Golden Globe.<\/p>\n

BUT, are we really that inept as an audience that we need to have everything blatantly established for us?\u00a0 Perhaps I’m wrong – the woman sitting behind me was so moved, she sobbed uncontrollably in the second half (not kidding).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Reviewed by Kathleen Amboy.\u00a0 Viewed at the Riviera. \u00a0\u00a0Brothers\u00a0is a film about a\u00a0military hero who is preparing to depart on a fourth tour of duty in Afghanistan,\u00a0while his\u00a0ex-con brother,\u00a0\u00a0recently released from prison,\u00a0has zero\u00a0ambition\u00a0in his life. Tobey Maguire plays Capt. Sam Cahill, a\u00a0considerate husband to his wife Grace\u00a0(Natalie Portman),\u00a0and loving father of two young daughters.\u00a0 His […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":49,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[66,3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6697","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-cinema-society","category-films"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/g9r.3b8.myftpupload.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6697","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/g9r.3b8.myftpupload.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/g9r.3b8.myftpupload.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/g9r.3b8.myftpupload.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/49"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/g9r.3b8.myftpupload.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6697"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/g9r.3b8.myftpupload.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6697\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/g9r.3b8.myftpupload.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6697"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/g9r.3b8.myftpupload.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6697"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/g9r.3b8.myftpupload.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6697"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}