Review of Brothers (2009) by Chads. — 06 Dec 2009

The raging bull has no proof, just a hunch, that Joey(Joe Pesci) is sleeping with Vickie(Cathy Moriarity) behind his back. Jack LaMotta(Robert DeNiro) may, or may not, be right, because Scorsese lets moviegoers decide for themselves if the boxer's paranoia about possible transgressions between his brother and wife are warranted.

It's this same sort of ambiguity that "Brothers" needs, as Sam(Tobey Maguire), the feisty spider, notes how Tommy(Jake Gyllenhaal) and Grace(Natalie Portman) carry on like teenagers at the skating rink.

But the filmmaker telegraphs their innocence, in a scene where the black sheep brother and wife of a "dead" G.I. smoke pot and kiss, but nothing more(even though their love would have been a foregone conclusion had fate not intervened).

Since the moviegoer knows the limits to their relationship, Sam's point blank accusation of infidelity sounds like the ravings of a madman, and not the prescience of a dead man walking, who knows his existence is practically irrelevant.

This tweak to the film's calibration, in which the intimations of a physical relationship looms like an aura, would have kicked the pathos up a notch, because the moviegoer sees how Sam's death was the best thing that ever happened to Tommy.

The drama of "Brothers" is at the homefront, not an Afghanistanian hot zone, but Tobey Maguire is too big of a star to be kept in the filmic negative space. When Sam comes home a transformed man, for the worst, Grace doesn't know the root cause of this human alchemy, and neither should we.

Sam's unpardonable act could have been taken care of with a simple flashback. "Brothers" is a domestic drama that's constantly interrupted by the war, but the moviegoer pardons the interruption.

This remake of the 2005 Susanne Bier original("Brodre") had me chained to my seat. The acting is, lights out terrific, perhaps, the best ensemble job in a major studio film this year, so far.