Brothers (2009)

About

Brothers is a 2009 American war drama film directed by Jim Sheridan and written by David Benioff, based on the 2004 Danish film Brødre by Susanne Bier and Anders Thomas Jensen. The film stars Tobey Maguire, Jake Gyllenhaal and Natalie Portman in a story exploring the devastating psychological toll of war on a family.

Marine Captain Sam Cahill is everything his younger brother Tommy is not: a decorated soldier, a devoted husband to Grace, and a loving father to daughters Isabelle and Maggie. Tommy, meanwhile, has just been released from prison after a bank robbery. When Sam deploys for his second tour in Afghanistan, his helicopter is shot down and he is presumed dead.

With Sam gone, Tommy steps up to support Grace and the children, gradually proving himself to be more than the family screw-up. He repairs the kitchen, bonds with the girls, and he and Grace develop a closeness that neither of them expected, though they never act on it beyond a single kiss.

Sam, however, is not dead. He has been captured and held in a remote Taliban encampment, where he endures brutal conditions alongside fellow Marine Private Joe Willis. Under extreme duress and torture, Sam is forced to make an unthinkable choice that will haunt him long after his rescue.

When Sam is eventually found alive and brought home, he returns as a changed man: silent, withdrawn, and consumed by guilt over what he did in captivity. Convinced that Grace and Tommy slept together during his absence, Sam's paranoia and rage intensify. The trauma of war has followed him home, and the demons he carries threaten to destroy the very family he fought to return to. The film builds to a shattering confrontation that lays bare the true cost of what Sam has endured and the impossibility of simply coming home.

Details

Director: Jim Sheridan

Writer/Screenplay: David Benioff (screenplay), Susanne Bier (motion picture "Brødre") and Anders Thomas Jensen (motion picture "Brødre")

Producer: Ryan Kavanaugh, Michael De Luca, Sigurjon Sighvatsson

Tagline: There are two sides to every family.

Running time: 1h 45min

Certificate: R

Budget: $26,000,000 (estimated)

Box office: $43,500,000 (worldwide gross). The film earned $28.5 million domestically in the United States and Canada, with an additional $15 million from international territories. Against its $26 million production budget, the film was a modest commercial performer.

Genre: * Drama

Released: 4 December 2009 (USA)

Music Composer: Thomas Newman

Cast

Soundtrack

Franchise

Related

Trivia

  • Jake Gyllenhaal learned of the death of his close friend Heath Ledger while he was in the middle of shooting a scene for this film. Gyllenhaal immediately walked off set, and returned to finish the scene two days later. He then took a longer bereavement leave before he was ready to continue with the rest of his scenes.
  • Originally, Jake Gyllenhaal wanted to play Sam and Tobey Maguire wanted to play Tommy. Jim Sheridan did not feel Maguire was convincing enough to play the "bad" brother, so they switched roles.
  • During one intense early prison scene, Gyllenhaal jokingly reached into his pocket and took out a picture of Ledger to stick on the prison wall. "Like those prisoners put [loved ones] on the wall, but Jake's was Heath Ledger," one set source recalls. That was before Ledger's death.
  • Tobey Maguire underwent an extreme physical transformation for the role, losing around 15 pounds to portray a gaunt prisoner of war. He also reportedly isolated himself from cast members off set to stay in character.
  • The film is a remake of the acclaimed 2004 Danish film Brødre, directed by Susanne Bier, who also co-wrote the screenplay for that original version.
  • Jim Sheridan described the film as being about "the wages of war" — not the battlefield itself but what soldiers bring home with them. He drew on research into PTSD among veterans returning from Iraq and Afghanistan.
  • Natalie Portman was initially hesitant about the role of Grace, feeling the character could be passive. Sheridan convinced her by emphasising that Grace is the emotional anchor of the film and the one who holds the family together while both brothers fall apart.
  • The dinner table scene near the film's climax was reportedly shot in a single long take. Bailee Madison's raw, unscripted emotional outburst during the scene was so powerful that Sheridan kept the cameras rolling and used her genuine reaction in the final cut.
  • Carey Mulligan filmed her scenes for Brothers shortly before her breakout role in An Education (2009), which earned her an Academy Award nomination for Best Actress.

Critical Reception

Brothers received mixed to positive reviews from critics. On Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds a 63% approval rating based on 156 reviews, with an average score of 6.2 out of 10. On Metacritic, the film scored 58 out of 100 based on 32 reviews, indicating mixed or average reception. IMDb users rate it 7.1 out of 10.

Jake Gyllenhaal and Natalie Portman were widely praised for their nuanced performances, while Tobey Maguire's intense portrayal of a PTSD-afflicted prisoner of war was more divisive, with some critics finding it harrowing and effective and others feeling it tipped into melodrama. Jim Sheridan was credited for the film's restrained direction and its focus on the emotional aftermath of war rather than combat itself.

The performances of the two child actresses, Bailee Madison and Taylor Geare, drew significant praise, with Madison's work in the dinner table scene being singled out as one of the film's most powerful moments. The film was noted as a thoughtful and emotionally demanding adaptation of its Danish source material, though some critics felt it lacked the subtlety of Bier's original.

Reviews

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