With
it getting near the end of the year I was sort of hoping that a few of
the possible Oscar nominated pictures coming out what help me make up
my 10 best picture list for the year 2009 as of right now, of the 50
pictures I have seen,  only 3-4 are on the list.

"Brothers"
will definitely be on the list not because it is a great movie or an
instant classic but because it is old fashioned movie making with a
2009 sensibility. It is not the equivalent of "The Best Years Of Our
Lives" or "Coming Home" but may, in the long run, represent the war
that was/is being fought in the beginning of the 21st century.

The writer, David Benioff,
and the director, Jim Sheridan, don't go overboard in the melodrama,
nor in manipulating the heart strings, and tear ducts, of the
audience.  The set up a father favoring one son over another, the
brothers pitted against one another, Cain versus Abel, a woman in the
middle, are nothing new to movies but, in most of the film, none of
situations are handled in a trite way.

Toby Maguire,
though going over the top a bit, delivers what will probably be an
Oscar nominated performance as the good son, the jock who married his
high school sweetheart, a cheerleader,does tours in Iraq and
Afghanistan, has two children and lives the good life until another
tour of duty takes him places mentally and physically that changes his life and turns the families upside down.

Jake Gyllehaal matches him but his role isn't as defined and the transition he goes
through is not really explained enough. He is the son who is coming out
of jail--exactly what he did is never fully told--while his brother is
leaving for another tour of duty. Yes, he seems to fall in love with
his sister-in-law and, yes, he truly loves his twonieces and he feels the contempt of his father yet his biggest love is for his brother.

I am confused by Natalie Portman.
She has been on the verge of super stardom a couple of times, has been
involved in a major movie series, is a beautiful woman, more than a
competent actress and yet seems to be stuck in her career. Her role
here as wife, mother, sister-in-law is very demanding of the talent she
has but doesn't add to her career.

Sam Shepard, as the father of the sons, ex Marine, drinker,  just misses making the impact the part calls for and Mare Winningham plays the standard role of  mother to the sons. Bailee Madison and Taylor Geare, as the young children of Toby and Natalie, bring much needed intelligence to their pivotal roles.

I
could have done without the torture scenes though they do go a long way
to explaining why Toby eventually does and acts the way he does and,
yet,  one of the weaknesses of the film is his going/remaining on duty
when he comes back to the States.

The
film moves swiftly and holds your interest and, though I don't think it
will happen, the ending does leave an opening for a sequel and, I, for one am curious as to how the lives of the two brothers and the wife continues.