Brothers - DVD

Film: Irish director Jim Sheridan (In the Name of the Father) has ventured to remake Susanne Bier's award-winning drama Brødre after the rather unsuccessful 50Cent film Get rich or die trying. While Brothers largely sticks closely to the original, it has become a drama more than worth watching, even for connoisseurs of the original, thanks to a few elements of its own and an extremely strong cast.

Captain Sam Cahill (Tobey Maguire) can look back on his life with pride. He has a loving wife in Grace (Natalie Portman) by his side, is the happy father of two adorable daughters, and has been decorated twice for his service in the Army. His brother Tommy (Jake Gyllenhaal) is the exact opposite: Tommy lives his life without considering the consequences for himself or others. He has just been released from prison and has no real perspective for his future. For Hank (Sam Shepard), the father of the two unequal brothers, only Sam counts, who is seen off to his latest mission in Afghanistan at a dinner party. When a short time later the news arrives that Sam has been shot down and declared dead during a mission, the world falls apart for Grace and Hank in particular. Only Tommy seems to rise above. He lovingly cares for his nieces and sister-in-law, who soon begins to see him through a whole new set of eyes. But then the unbelievable happens: Sam returns home, battered and mentally unstable, after weeks as a prisoner of war. And the newly consolidated family is once again put to the test by Sam's hostile and enormously self-destructive behavior.

In essence, a remake of this story wouldn't really have been necessary, as this new version hardly gains any new aspects from the original. And yet Sheridan's version also has its right to exist. The enormously strong performance of Tobey Maguire and Jake Gyllenhaal alone, who visually make the perfect pair of brothers, makes the movie worth seeing. It is also to Sheridan's credit that he tries to lighten up the very serious and sometimes almost depressing events with some lighter moments. So the viewer isn't overwhelmed by the heavy content, but gets the chance to take a breath, lean back and even smile a little here and there.

Whoever thinks that the intensity of the original is diluted by this is mistaken. On the contrary: precisely because the entire film is not dominated by dramaturgical heaviness, the moments filled with gloom, despair and rage can play out their power much more obviously and almost effectively. In this, Tobey Maguire's also obvious physical devotion to this heavy role in particular lingers long in the memory.

Admittedly, feel-good cinema looks different. If you're looking for an escape from reality in movies or just to be entertained for two hours, you'll find Brothers rather hard to like. But if you appreciate intense, in every respect convincing and captured in haunting images acting cinema from America, this very good remake can definitely be recommended. Worth seeing!

Image + Sound: The clean image has a very atmospheric effect with its somewhat reduced color scheme and good overall sharpness. The same can be said for the rather subtly mixed sound, which provides the right tone with well-used ambient noise and a coherent soundtrack. Good!

Extras: Let's go with a very interesting audio commentary by director Jim Sheridan, which unfortunately has not been subtitled. But if you have a good command of English, you get a very honest, at times surprisingly intimate, but also technically interesting commentary.

Furthermore, the DVD has two short documentaries to offer, which show how the original Brødre became the remake Brothers (approx. 12 min.), and how Sheridan processes the theme of family in his films (approx. 15 min.). Not always free of a certain advertising character, but all in all still worth seeing. The German and English trailer to the film close the bonus program.

Conclusion: Brothers is an oppressive drama and a good remake of Susanne Beer's Brødre. On DVD, the film can please with its good technical realization and good extras. For whom it does not always have to be light fare and who likes to watch moving dramas with excellent actors, Brothers can be warmly recommended

An article by Frankfurt-Tipp