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Brothers

2004, Movie, R, 110 mins

Brothers: Review

Danish director Susanne Bier's intense drama explores the relationship between a middle-class mother and her ne'er-do-well brother-in-law after her husband is reported dead in Afghanistan. From the time they were children, brothers Michael (Ulrich Thomsen) and Jannik (Nikolaj Lie Kaas) have always been opposites. Michael was responsible, studious, athletic and the light of his parents' (Solbjorg Hojfeldt, Bent Mejding) lives, while Jannick made trouble, slacked off and expected his older sibling to protect him from the consequences of his smart-mouthed remarks. Now Michael, a major in the Danish army, is married to the radiant Sarah (Connie Nielsen, acting for the first time in her native Danish) and the father of two preadolescent daughters, Natalie (Sarah Juel Werner) and Camilla (Rebecca Logstrup Soltau). Jannick is fresh out of jail, having just completed a stretch for armed robbery; his homecoming dinner is fraught with tension for many reasons, not the least of which is that Michael is about to ship out to Afghanistan. When Michael is reported dead in a helicopter explosion shortly thereafter, Jannik — against all odds and all expectations — actually rises to the occasion. Slowly but surely, he cuts back on his drinking and reaches out to Sarah — whom he always reviled as a stuck-up, bourgeois bitch — and his nieces. He apologizes to the bank teller he traumatized during the robbery and even gets a job. Then the news no one could have anticipated arrives: Michael isn't dead. He survived the crash and was held captive by mujaheddin in a remote base camp. Driven by his single-minded desire to survive and return to his family, Michael committed an act so morally repugnant he can scarcely believe he did it, let alone admit it to anyone else. The guilt he feels poisons his mind against those who love him and turns his homecoming into a nightmare. Though not a Dogme95 production like OPEN HEARTS (2003), Bier's previous collaboration with screenwriter Anders Thomas Jensen, this emotionally harrowing family drama nevertheless makes discreet use of slick lighting, eye-catching camera angles and stylized compositions; even Johan Soderqvist's score is deployed sparingly and to haunting effect. The result is to let the actors' naked performances carry the story's weight; they transform developments that could have been trashily melodramatic into harrowing glimpses into the dark recesses of the human heart. (In Danish, with subtitles) leave a comment --Maitland McDonagh