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RATING:   
SINGAPORE : The great war movies of this generation are ones which dredge out those gut-wrenching ruminations on the psychological carnage and post-traumatic atrocities of a futile war.
Acclaimed director Jim Sheridan (six Oscars nominations for films like "My Left Foot" and "In The Name Of The Father" but still no wins) knows exactly that as he remakes the much-lauded Danish film "Brodre", paying careful attention to the tiniest of details, with the help of screenwriter David Benioff ("The 25th Hour").
Cahill brothers Sam (Tobey Maguire) and Tommy (Jake Gyllenhaal) couldn't have turned out more different, thanks to their Vietnam vet father (a quietly superb Sam Shepard) who makes his favouritism very clear.
But when golden boy and United States Marine captain Sam is presumed dead after his helicopter goes down in Afghanistan, everything in the Cahill clan changes.
Ex-con black sheep of the family Tommy finds a new foothold in life as he attempts to fill his big brother's shoes by connecting with Sam's adorable two daughters (the heartbreaking 10-year-old Bailee Madison is the next child actor to look out for) and falling for his brother's beautiful, greiving wife (Natalie Portman).
But when Sam is rescued and returns home from war a hollow-eyed, rage-filled shadow of his former self, the family must confront all underlying painful ghosts, of both the war and familial kind.
Firecracker performances from young Hollywood all round, with Gyllenhaal believable, nuanced and solid, while the incredibly pretty Portman delivers competently despite sometimes looking like a little girl playing mommy-dress-up.
But it is really Maguire who is the dark, compelling heart of it all. With Spidey nowhere in sight, he one-ups his "Ice-Storm" and "Ciderhouse Rules" performances by delicately riding Sam's war-beaten, morally-tumultuous and post-traumatic emotional rollercoaster with intelligence, subtle anguish and those deep-pool eyes. Thoroughly deserving of his recent Golden Globe nomination, it'll be a travesty if he doesn't get the same treatment for the Oscars.
As Sheridan plants simmering friction and emotional bombs throughout this character-driven film, patiently waiting for each one to explode, you start to squirm at how uncomfortably tight and strained your journey with the film is.
And it is right at the knock-out, tension-laden family dinner scene that one realises the subtle power of his film-making.
Yes, "Brothers" doesn't entirely avoid cliches, and it occasionally borders on soap opera melodrama, but that never once spoils the timely interest of its core subject and the level of heart-wrenching that it generates.
- TODAY/il
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