Brothers
Filmmaker: Susanne Bier (Screenwriter)
USA / 2010 / 104 min / English
Opening Weekend Date: 22 January 2010
Cinemas screening the film: Apollo Picadilly Circus, Cineworld, Shaftsbury Avenue, Empire Leicester Square and Nationwide
When a decorated marine goes missing overseas, his black-sheep younger brother cares for his wife and children at home - with consequences that will shake the foundation of the entire family.
Brothers tells the powerful story of two siblings, Captain Sam Cahill (Tobey Maguire) and younger brother Tommy Cahill (Jake Gyllenhaal), who are polar opposites. Sam is married to his high school sweetheart (Natalie Portman) and has two children; Tommy is a drifter who has just been released from jail. When Sam goes missing, presumed dead in Afghanistan, Tommy fills his shoes at home. Sam's unexpected return forces the brothers to face issues of love, loyalty and manhood- and the woman who is caught between them.
Based on the Danish film Brødre which was written and directed by Susanne Bier
About the writer: Susanne Bier
Writer and director Susanne Bier achieved her first significant breakthrough in 1999 with The One and Only - a well-received romantic comedy about dating, marriage, parenting and adultery; reportedly the highest grossing Danish film in history. Her follow up, the Dogme 95 drama Open Hearts (2002) brought Bier her first international crossover hit. Shot according to Lars von Trier's hyper-ascetic filmmaking rules, it told of two couples whose lives become hopelessly and tragically enmeshed following a severe automobile accident.
Susanne went on to write and direct Brødre and After the Wedding which explores the moral and ethical quandaries plaguing the head of an orphanage (Mads Mikkelsen) when he is offered a donation -- some strings attached -- by his ex-girlfriend's millionaire husband. After the Wedding gleaned a Best Foreign Language Film Oscar nomination and gave Bier a springboard to Hollywood.
Her first English language film Things We Lost in the Fire (2007) starred Halle Berry as a suddenly and tragically widowed housewife whose path crisscrosses with that of a lonely heroin addict (Benicio Del Toro), who had been her husband's best friend.
