Brothers

Brothers is the Leaves of Grass of 2009. It was criminally overlooked, despite it's greatness. I think it's the subject matter here that kept some away. It's about war, and war in a dim light. It tells of a family where the father has gone off to war. He is Tobey Maguire in one of his best performances ever. He's a loyal and good man who did everything right in his life. Now it is his duty to go off and perform his talents at war. He is presumed dead after a helicopter crash, and his wife (Natalie Portman) is distraught. She is forced to look after their two young children (wonderful acting there as the director Jim Sheridan has the perfect hand for family drama) with the help of her husbands brother (Jake Gyllenhaal). The brother is a fuck-up, but in the family's darkest moment, he steps up and greatly assists. In the trailer for the film it looked as if Gyllenhaal fooled around with the wife, however, the movie makes it quite clear that he doesn't. Maguire returns, he's survived his ordeal after being kept hostage--mental torture. He's a different man now, the war has changed him, he believes that Gyllenhaal is screwing around with his wife. He goes crazy, but he goes crazy in a specific way. His insanity is just that one step over the line. If a rational man had suspicions, he would investigate, he would be depressed, he would feel immense and overwhelming anger, but he would not act on it. Maguire has lost this self-control. Brothers is not only a well-done in every respects kind of movie, but one that raises interesting and talk-about-it-later questions.
Brothers: ★★★★