subject: Brothers, a movie that misses its mark [print this page] The movie starts out poorly, with too many things happening at once, so you don't get to know the characters before they go through their personal changes. One thing that saved this movie from being a total failure was Maguire's fantastic and disturbing portrayal of a soldier suffering with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, a performance that will send chills down your spine. The rest however, remains weak background fodder, and scenes with Portman and Gyllenhaal are particularly naff. As a war movie, it has nothing new to bring to the table, but it doesn't work as a romantic film either.
