Brothers
Tobey Maguire, Jake Gyllenhaal, and Natalie Portman. Sounds like a good cast, and the previews made this movie seem awesome. The film opens on Tobey coming back home from overseas, getting ready to ship out, and visiting his family, Natalie and two kids. Then he picks his brother Jake up from jail, and finally we get opening credits. It was definitely a slow starter, and seems like a fairly low-budget film. It was quick-moving in the beginning also, which makes sense because it was only an hour and forty minutes long. Within 15 minutes we meet all the major characters and it’s assumed that Tobey, Natalie’s husband, is dead. The scene where the commanding officers tell his wife is heart-wrenching and I hate watching scenes like that – Natalie Portman did a fantastic job.I’ve always liked her. Then when Jake finds out he died, it’s acted even more perfectly. Jake Gyllenhaal really is a terrific actor. I’ve never been a huge fan of his, but he is growing into an amazing actor. Then they showed the funeral – and I’ve been to my share of military funerals and they’re all really depressing. Anyway, so it’s clear that Tobey was the golden son and Jake was the fuck up. His father was a Marine and so was Tobey, and Jake was not interested and that meant he was the bad son.
Of course, you find out Tobey wasn’t actually dead, he was a POW. And it’s STILL only 25 minutes in. So then you get cut scenes – first to Tobey’s family being sad and then gradually accepting Jake as part of the family and Toby in a POW camp trying to keep another soldier from telling their captors anything. You start to feel really bad for Tobey because you know Jake is going to hook up with his wife and he’s living this shit life. They even make him beat and possibly murder his fellow American prisoner, and it almost made me cry.
The previews really suck on this movie because it gives away a lot that would have been surprising and interesting to watch – like you wouldn’t know he was alive, and then you wouldn’t know that Jake wasn’t just being a good brother – because it seems at first like he’s being nice and helpful, but then he kisses Natalie – which totally wouldn’t be that big of a deal if Tobey was actually dead. At least Jake seems like he feels bad about it for awhile.
As I was watching, though, I couldn’t figure out right away what or who was nominated. At first I thought maybe Jake Gyllenhaal for Best Supporting Actor, but it turns out that Tobey Maguire is actually up for Best Actor in a Drama – when really, he isn’t in about half of the film. That was a surprise. But then again, the parts he was in as a prisoner in the first half of the film were good – he is a good actor. Once he came back home, it was a classic case of PTSD for sure. He’d clearly been tortured as well, and there was a great scene between him and his father where his father talked about how he couldn’t talk to his wife after Vietnam either, and Tobey is very stoic and does a lot of creepy staring. His haircut plus the scars on his face but his skinny-ness make him look pretty scary. He and his brother seem to be getting along pretty okay, but it’s clear that Jake is the normal one all of a sudden. Then comes the moment. Tobey says, “Grace – did you fuck her?” and it kinda got weird. He even said he could forgive him if that happened.
Now it seems like Tobey is going to go pretty crazy about Jake and his wife. Ooh, creepy. He also starts in on the OCD behavior and doesn’t seem to be getting any sleep. It’s all very believable. It’s also incredibly sad because you slowly see Tobey breaking down and losing his family. I really thought that Natalie and Jake were going to hook up, but all they did was kiss. Unfortunately, Tobey was freaking out about it and kept insisting that they were sleeping together, which they totally weren’t. So it’s a much sadder movie than I thought. He was also dealing with all the guilt from beating and possibly killing the other prisoner, whose wife was friends with Natalie. Awkward. Tobey’s kids even became scared of him after a little while, and that made me want to cry. It clearly affected his older daughter, and that was really upsetting. It all sort of hit the fan when the youngest daughter freaked out and said she wished Tobey had “stayed dead” and that he was just mad “cause mommy would rather sleep with uncle Tommy than with you” which was scary. That little girl should’ve been nominated for something for real.
In that last scene where Tobey loses his mind and starts destroying the kitchen, I seriously started to cry. Then the cops came and Tobey came outside with a loaded handgun, and was about to shoot himself. “I’m drowning, Tommy.” It was so sad and upsetting. It seemed like that was his breaking point and it ended with him getting a little bit better. I can’t imagine Tobey will win the award, but I think he might deserve the award. They sure are making a lot of movies about how war makes you insane.
Of course, you find out Tobey wasn’t actually dead, he was a POW. And it’s STILL only 25 minutes in. So then you get cut scenes – first to Tobey’s family being sad and then gradually accepting Jake as part of the family and Toby in a POW camp trying to keep another soldier from telling their captors anything. You start to feel really bad for Tobey because you know Jake is going to hook up with his wife and he’s living this shit life. They even make him beat and possibly murder his fellow American prisoner, and it almost made me cry.
The previews really suck on this movie because it gives away a lot that would have been surprising and interesting to watch – like you wouldn’t know he was alive, and then you wouldn’t know that Jake wasn’t just being a good brother – because it seems at first like he’s being nice and helpful, but then he kisses Natalie – which totally wouldn’t be that big of a deal if Tobey was actually dead. At least Jake seems like he feels bad about it for awhile.
As I was watching, though, I couldn’t figure out right away what or who was nominated. At first I thought maybe Jake Gyllenhaal for Best Supporting Actor, but it turns out that Tobey Maguire is actually up for Best Actor in a Drama – when really, he isn’t in about half of the film. That was a surprise. But then again, the parts he was in as a prisoner in the first half of the film were good – he is a good actor. Once he came back home, it was a classic case of PTSD for sure. He’d clearly been tortured as well, and there was a great scene between him and his father where his father talked about how he couldn’t talk to his wife after Vietnam either, and Tobey is very stoic and does a lot of creepy staring. His haircut plus the scars on his face but his skinny-ness make him look pretty scary. He and his brother seem to be getting along pretty okay, but it’s clear that Jake is the normal one all of a sudden. Then comes the moment. Tobey says, “Grace – did you fuck her?” and it kinda got weird. He even said he could forgive him if that happened.
Now it seems like Tobey is going to go pretty crazy about Jake and his wife. Ooh, creepy. He also starts in on the OCD behavior and doesn’t seem to be getting any sleep. It’s all very believable. It’s also incredibly sad because you slowly see Tobey breaking down and losing his family. I really thought that Natalie and Jake were going to hook up, but all they did was kiss. Unfortunately, Tobey was freaking out about it and kept insisting that they were sleeping together, which they totally weren’t. So it’s a much sadder movie than I thought. He was also dealing with all the guilt from beating and possibly killing the other prisoner, whose wife was friends with Natalie. Awkward. Tobey’s kids even became scared of him after a little while, and that made me want to cry. It clearly affected his older daughter, and that was really upsetting. It all sort of hit the fan when the youngest daughter freaked out and said she wished Tobey had “stayed dead” and that he was just mad “cause mommy would rather sleep with uncle Tommy than with you” which was scary. That little girl should’ve been nominated for something for real.
In that last scene where Tobey loses his mind and starts destroying the kitchen, I seriously started to cry. Then the cops came and Tobey came outside with a loaded handgun, and was about to shoot himself. “I’m drowning, Tommy.” It was so sad and upsetting. It seemed like that was his breaking point and it ended with him getting a little bit better. I can’t imagine Tobey will win the award, but I think he might deserve the award. They sure are making a lot of movies about how war makes you insane.
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