Brothers

I was not in the mood for a heavy drama today, thanks to a great number of factors in my life that put me in a giddy mood, so I'm not sure why I picked up Brothers, staring Jake Gyllenhaal, Toby Maguire and Natalie Portman. But I sure am glad that I finally did watch it. Luckily, we did not see Brothers in theaters when it came out nearly 6 months ago, even though my closest were extremely interested in going due to the intense previews. I just watched it alone on my couch tonight and bawled like a baby. And I am most commonly known as the one unable to publicly express my emotions.

One of the best parts of this movie is the fact that it is not actually what the previews make it out to be. The set up and subsequent events surprised me, because I was expecting extreme mushy romance between Gyllenhaal and Portman's characters. But instead I found this movie to be an excellent character study, mainly of the way that men express [or rather, don't] their emotions. There is so much more to the story that you discover through the way the family members interact and make brief reference to.

The highlight of this whole shebang? The eldest of the daughters. I didn't realize until now... how awesome it is to juxtapose the relationship of two brothers in one generation with the sisterhood in the next, and the fact that one completely affects the other without them knowing how much. But back to this girl, played by 10 year old Bailee Madison, who is experiencing the early life crisis that most young girls go through but can't quite explain. I lived through that age, you do and say things, and at the same time think to yourself: why am I acting this way? this isn't me! But have no power to control it. This little girl is an ACTRESS. She can do that simultaneous happy yet fearing for the future, holding back tears face. You know it. You do it when you're really happy and laughing but can't figure out why you're crying. Just watch her face! The character is fighting the urge to hate her father but desiring a real relationship with him [hm... sounds like when I'm mad at God] and the BEST PART of this movie is her antics at the dinner table on her little sister's birthday. She makes a bold move and is catalyst for all the emotional outbursts that come next and bring the movie to fruition. Gyllenhaal, Maguire and Portman got top billing, but she deserves it.

I tend to like war movies about historical events, the whole Band of Brothers saga is one of my favorite things to watch, and I tend to stay away from current event war movies. However, the fact that this movie brought to light a lot of issues that veterans could face is very important. Don't expect you're best friend's boyfriend to come home a raging lunatic, but do understand that there's more to war than what we see on tv. I think this movie represents as accurate a picture of the effects of war as we can get out of the American media, without actually being there ourselves. You may know someone with a different story, but at least the general public gets a glimpse of the war that our troops are fighting, and we never personally see the impact of.

The down side to this movie is at the beginning, as the story is being set up, we see Maguire playing a normal father and husband. But he's just so bad at being normal that it's unbelievable to me. He plays a great creepy nerd and a great crazy, but not a great normal guy. The upside to this–just wait till he goes ballistic, if you thought the preview was intense, hold on to your throw pillow, because you don't know what's coming.

Overall: I highly recommend watching it alone, but then discussing it with someone. You will, at least at one point, think that it's boring and don't expect to be happy after it's over, but you will like it. Pay attention to the way the family members interact and realize that they are just like us. It's a sensational movie, but there's no sensationalism here.

8/10. not my favorite movie per se, but an excellent drama