Brothers

Spiderman and Donnie Darko are brothers in a film titled Brothers. One is in the army, the other is an ex-con. The army brother (Tobey McGuire), is sent off to war and is captured though believed to be killed. Meanwhile, the other brother (Jake Gyllenhall), takes over his role as the father figure for his family. Wen Tobey comes back, things get messed up.

This is a movie which is trying to follow in the footsteps of films like The Deer Hunter which shows how hard it is to live with the things you did in war when you come home. However, that is really taken to extremes here as Tobey is very reclusive and his wife (Natalie Portman) and kids are frightened of him

I thought this movie would go the cliched path of actually having a romance develop between Portman and Gylanhall when they thought her husband was dead. Thankfully they didn’t, which was refreshing. What was less refreshing was the rather abrupt ending which really didn’t feel like an ending. Just when we thought the movie was going somewhere, it was awkwardly over.

Not a weak film, but not an very strong film either. There’s some great acting, but the weak ending and hard-to relate characters dragged it down a little.
7/10