Brothers (2004)

This powerfully emotional film, scripted by the director with Anders Thomas Jensen, takes an age-old story of sibling rivalry and gives it a modern resonance. The stark differences between the brothers are obvious from the outset. Jannick is a hedonistic drifter, just released from jail for a bank robbery. Michael is a professional soldier, a respectable family man and the apple of his judgmental father’s eye, at the expense of Jannick, for whom he has little regard. When Michael returns and he observes the closeness that seems to have developed between his girls and their uncle, and between his wife and her brother-in-law, he begins to have dark thoughts fueled by his recent trauma.

If the film trundles along well enough up till this point with Bier diligently laying out the elements of the plot it now shifts gear significantly due to the harrowing experience that Michael underwent at the hands of the Taliban, one which has been enough to tip him against all those he loves. Throughout the film Bier makes much use of contrasts, between the brothers, between men and women between the security of middle-class life and the battlefield, often juxtaposing sequences and images to make her point while leading us to the awareness that in daily life people can never know what turn their lives will take.

The strength of Bier’s previous Dogme-sanctioned film, Open Hearts (2002), was its ability to portray emotion, intimacy and moral dilemma, without judgment or easy answers. Here again she shows her sure hand in this area, aided admirably by her cast. At the film’s heart is Sarah, played by Connie Nielsen. Despite several English speaking films, this is her first in her native tongue and she’s marvellous, albeit a little too conveniently beautiful. Ulrich Thomsen as Michael was recently seen in Kingdom Of Heaven (2005). He does a credible turnabout from decent law-abiding citizen to irrational victim of post-traumatic stress syndrome. Similarly, Nikolaj Lie Kaas makes us believe in the motivations and transformations that Jannik undergoes. The constant tension between the two brothers is beautifully juxtaposed with the obvious love they feel for each other, as well as their relationship to Sarah and the girls. Jannik is a big kid, bringing cheeky humour to everything whilst Michael is ever the responsible adult. That the brothers in some way exchange aspects of their identities is possibly a little contrived. Also stereotyped is Bier’s handling of Michael’s Afghan captors though perhaps the Taliban were as inhumane as portrayed here.

Despite the Dogme-esque style, with natural lighting and a bit too much hand-held camera work, there is palpable authenticity. A resonant score by Johan Söderqvist is used to great effect and the finished result is a thoughtful film which ultimately engages the audience with its humanity.

FYI: The film was remade with the same title in 2009 by Jim Sheridan with  Natalie Portman, Tobey Maguire and Jake Gyllenhaal in the leads.

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