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Brothers
IFC Films


7.6

based on 30 reviews
Read critic reviews
How did we calculate this?

based on 10 votes
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Rate this movie

FILM:

MPAA RATING: R for violence, language and brief nudity

Starring Connie Nielsen, Ulrich Thomsen, Nikolaj Lie Kaas, Bent Mejding, Solbjørg Højfeldt, Sarah Juel Werner, and Rebecca Løgstrup

The lives of two very different brothers become simultaneously intertwined and thrust apart in this intense and powerful drama. (IFC Films)

GENRE(S):	Drama \| Foreign
WRITTEN BY:	Anders Thomas Jensen Susanne Bier (story)
DIRECTED BY:	Susanne Bier
RELEASE DATE:	DVD: September 20, 2005 Theatrical: May 6, 2005
RUNNING TIME:	110 minutes, Color
ORIGIN:	Denmark
LANGUAGE(S):	Danish (with English subtitles)

Original title "Brødre"; Audience Award (World Cinema - Dramatic), 2005 Sundance Film Festival

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

100

Christian Science Monitor David Sterritt

A triumph of psychological drama, owing as much to Ms. Bier's sensitive style as to Anders Thomas Jensen's smart screenplay, based on Bier's own story idea.

100

Premiere Peter Debruge

Brothers takes a scenario as old as Genesis – two jealous siblings spar over the affections of the same woman – and renders it fresh and immediate, by virtue of the warm, almost maternal, generosity director Susanne Bier shows her characters.

100

San Francisco Chronicle Ruthe Stein

Imaginative and immensely engrossing film.

Entertainment Weekly Lisa Schwarzbaum

We do live in a fraught world of interconnections, Bier makes clear, and what happens far away matters, in unexpected ways, close to home.

The Hollywood Reporter Kirk Honeycutt

Everyone involved -- actors, crew, director Susanne Bier and screenwriter Anders Thomas Jensen in their second collaboration -- are in peak form in this unflinching look at repressed feelings and emotional devastation.

Wall Street Journal Joe Morgenstern

A drama of uncommon moral complexity, unexpected humor, convincing transformations (for good and bad) and, best of all, vibrant, unpredictable energy. In a movie landscape littered with dead souls, here's a live one.

Newsweek David Ansen

Gripping from start to finish.

Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert

The central performance in Brothers is by Connie Nielsen, who is strong, deep and true.

The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Rick Groen

A powerful, brutal, funny, tragic, vibrant, very human movie.

Charlotte Observer Lawrence Toppman

The two male leads, bulwarks of the Danish film industry for more than a decade, play off each other like the veterans they are.

Philadelphia Inquirer Steven Rea

Brothers is about how people change, how they can rise to an occasion, or sink to one. It's a tale of love and allegiance, of truth and the cruelties that men can bring to bear on one another.

Portland Oregonian Marc Mohan

These three central performances, and a solid script by Anders Thomas Jensen and director Susanne Bier, ground a potentially overwrought story in genuine feeling.

Seattle Post-Intelligencer Paula Nechak

It's a quiet anti-war film full of lovely, heartbreakingly assured performances and real situations and responses.

Los Angeles Times Kenneth Turan

The end result was that the performances reached a remarkable level of intimacy and intensity.

The New York Times Stephen Holden

Filmed in the unadorned Dogme style and acted with a ferocious intensity.

Variety Gunnar Rehlin

The second collaboration between helmer Susanne Bier and scriptwriter Anders Thomas Jensen once again shows what skilled artists can do with a story that might have ended up filled with cliches.

Dallas Observer Bill Gallo

A beautifully acted, graceful, and intelligent film that usefully dramatizes the gulf between Fortress Bush and the relativist politics of Western Europe.

Washington Post Desson Thomson

There's such a sense of overall intensity, you know you have been though something powerful.

Miami Herald Connie Ogle

At its core, Susanne Bier's wrenching portrayal of the shifting dynamics within a Danish family is really about survival, about how we cope in the face of shattering grief and what we'll do -- anything, really -- to save ourselves.

Boston Globe Wesley Morris

Piercingly co-written and directed by Susanne Bier, the movie dramatizes one man's collapse and the other's surprising maturation.

New York Post V.A. Musetto

Director Susanne Bier is helped by a well-chosen cast, especially the glowing Nielsen, a Danish-born actress best known for American films like "Gladiator."

New York Daily News Elizabeth Weitzman

Tapping into the basest fears of war while subverting all expectations, director Susanne Bier deftly reads between the headlines.

Chicago Tribune Robert K. Elder

While the film's strength lies in an ensemble effort, it's really Sarah and Jannik who provide the film with its most compelling characters, its momentum and, ultimately, its heart.

Chicago Reader J.R. Jones

Danish director Susanne Bier elicits wonderfully intimate performances from her actors, and this 2004 drama has so many genuine, low-key encounters it manages to overcome a contrived and familiar plot.

The Onion (A.V. Club) Scott Tobias

A movie so nice she made it twice, Susanne Bier's Dogme-certified feature "Open Hearts" gets a slight makeover in her follow-up Brothers, another raw melodrama about three lives recalibrated by sudden tragedy.

Film Threat Pete Vonder Haar

What sets Bier's film apart from similar fare are the consistently fine performances and powerful scenes of surprising ferocity.

Austin Chronicle Marjorie Baumgarten

It's interesting and well-performed, but it's no Cain and Abel.

Empire Dan Jolin

Sounds rather soapy and melodramatic, but director Susanne Bier, assisted by an able cast, ensures the traumas are painfully realistic and subtly observed.

Village Voice Michael Atkinson

Brothers emerges as no less or more than Bier's claustrophobic compositions and unimaginative choices.

LA Weekly Ella Taylor

Bier's portrayal of the brothers' interplay holds few surprises, and the exploitation of the war between East and West is vulgar, contrived and borderline racist.

The average user rating for this movie is 7.6 (out of 10) based on 10 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Stephen gave it a7:
Pretty fair effort all round from Bier, well cast and acted, filmed with vigour straight from the Danish Dogme Director’s Digest, which means the fine details of Scandinavian birthday-cake protocol will be just so. The leading three are excellent - Ulrich Thomsen as the traumatised Danish soldier with the horrible Afghanistan secret that dares not speak its name, Connie Nielsen as his baffled wife, and Nikolaj Lie Kaas as his sexy but unreliable brother. The only piece of casting that I wasn’t sure of was Spain playing Afghanistan, but I guess it keeps the insurance down.

Dawn J. gave it an8:
The strengths of the movie lie in its unflinching portrayal of the very personal complexities of war. Two families are impacted-Michael's own wife and daughters and the wife and son of Niels Peter, a townsman and fellow soldier who shares his prison cave. It is in the comparison of these two families in which the film's conflict lies. We get a brief snapshot of Neils Peter's family when Michael visits her upon his return. The cropping is close; the camera closes in on a spare white kitchen table. Niels Peter's wife Ditte sit at the table, alone in her grief and longing. The film spends much more time on Sophia's family of two roustabout girls and the constantly present brother Jannik. The scope is expansive, dynamic. The range of laughter and tears is photographed in a medley of shots against a background of colors, textures, hammers, saws, and bustle. Clearly, progress is being made, particularly before Michael's return. There is no sugar coating of post-trauma life, no sentimentalized view of family. The performances are uniformly strong, the photography intense, the music good. The story leaves us with questions: Why do Jannik and Sophia not consummate their desire? Why do the brothers' parents drop out of the story once the elder son has returned? The complexities of the film provoke questions we want to see answered. Even though the film presents nothing startlingly new about PTSD, it at least offers no easy answers and is always absorbing to watch.

Bryan G. gave it an8:
Subtle differences in familiar plot lines make the reality of emotion stand out as the crowning execution in this film. It is wonderfully atypical.

Dave gave it a10:
Great film, gives a good view of the effects of war on a family.

Clint H. gave it a10:
A intense Dogme film, acted with such ferocity.

A. Post gave it a3:
Excellent idea; poorly executed.

Robin M. gave it a9:
Gripping, psychologically intense and dead-on believable, this one will keep you thinking about the Cain and Abel dimensions for days to come. Morally complex, dramatic and intelligent.

Brothers IFC Films

Brothers
IFC Films