Brothers: B-

"Brothers" is a good film that I sadly worry may have a hard time finding its audience. It's a surprisingly stark and real story of a Marine (Tobey Maquire) with a wife and two kids who heads off to fight in afghanistan.

He has a ne're do well brother who's just out of prison played by Jake Gyllenhaal.
I'm usually not much of a fan of Gyllenhaal. He has about as much emotion as a dead fish for me most of the time, but he suprised me here. He dug in deep beneath his character's superficial roughness to portray the soul of a man dealing with disappointment and trying to live up to the lofty reputation of his brother and the high expectations of his military veteran father.

And Natalie Portman gives one of the best performances of her career as Maguire's wife.

When his military helicopter crashes, he's presumed dead. And the film nicely intercuts between his family back at home, and his predicament after he's captured by afghanistan rebels.

Director Jim Sheridan, who did the truly wonderful "In America" a few years back, has just the right touch with the material. Whenever it threatens to go off the rails into melodrama he knows just how to put the brakes on and bring it back down to earth. And his work with the two children in this movie is pretty remarkable too. These aren't your typical movie star kids, they seem like just normal girls reacting how normal girls would react in the situation. None of that winking look, or carefully rehearsed crying.

All in all, it's no feel good crowd pleaser, but good performances make it worth seeing

Brothers: B-