Brothers

Those who know me know I am against the wars in both Afghanistan and Iraq. In fact, I am against most wars. This movie was not promoted as an anti-war movie but that is exactly what it is. I have noticed more and more that movies are promoted in a way that the producers think will get more people to come rather than showing a real preview of what the movie is about. “Brothers,” I thought, was a love story triangle - two brothers, one who was thought to be dead, and one woman. However, this is really about what war can do to a man, his wife, his brother, his children and everyone involved with him.

At times it moved very slowly. I also don’t like it when people don’t talk – when they walk away without easily clearing up a conflict. Having said that, I thought the movie was actually better than I had imagined. The acting was pretty good. Tobey Maguire was very believable as the marine. Jake Gyllenhaal played the part of the brother showing about as much emotion as he did in Brokeback Mountain although he smiled and laughed more in this one. Natalie Portman was fine as the wife but the one that really blew me away was Bailee Madison, who played the oldest daughter. This little girl was amazing, showing a range of feelings, often by just curling her lip. I think we will be seeing a lot more from her. The other child was also very good.

Even though the movie moved slowly at times, I thought it was well-done and would recommend it as not a “must see” but one worth seeing and definitely worth getting from Netflix.