Two Brothers

Here's the poster for the December drama Brothers.

Tobey Maguire and Natalie Portman are married.
Jake Gyllenhaal comes between them. Sort of.

I can already hear Glenn at Stale Popcorn gnashing his teeth over that empty white space up top. He hates that! But I personally love the poster. It strikes me as appropriately minimalist and I love the delicate severity of that thin cleaving white line. The movie spins a rather simple story of a woman whose heart is split between two brothers, her husband (who goes missing in The Middle East) and her brother-in-law (who comforts her at home).

I love the poster but I'm worried.

The trailer is as In Contention suggests, way too shrill. I saw it a week ago and chose to ignore it since I'm eager to see this. It suggests a film that's twice as histrionic as even the climax of the Danish film that this is based on (a film which I've raved about in the past and which you should rent not only because it's good but for compare/contrast purposes). Said trailer also gives far too much of the story away. It's one of those trailers that tells you the whole story from beginning to end. It doesn't even stop at the 2/3rds or the 3/4ths mark.

Tobey Maguire has serious PTSD issues

Nevertheless, we'll hope for the best. Brothers opens almost exactly 5 years to the day since Closer ushered in Natalie Portman's graduation to adult roles. Good sign? Plus, director Jim Sheridan has a way with actors and he's a bit of a gold magnet. He's only made six films prior to Brothers, two of which were best picture nominees (My Left Foot and In the Name of the Father). His films have garnered eight acting nominations with two wins. Quite an enviable track record, yes?

Any hunches on how Brothers will fare?
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