QI: The Best Bits (Fremantle Media)

Brothers (Lionsgate):

3 out of 5

Brothers is a psychological-drama post-9/11 film, and is both a timely reminder about the ongoing existence of war, and the effects it has on its participants.

The film introduces the viewer to Capt. Sam Cahill (Tobey Maguire) and wife Grace (Natalie Portman), on the eve of Sam’s departure to Afghanistan. When he goes missing soon after arriving in the war-torn country, he is presumed dead. Sam’s wayward brother Tommy (Jake Gyllenhaal), recently released from prison, struggles with the guilt of being left alive while his beloved brother is dead. He steps in for Sam, helping Grace with household tasks, all the while growing closer to her and the children – with consequences that will affect the entire family, when Sam is discovered alive.

Inspired by the Susanne Bier Danish film Brødre, Brothers is more than a little melodramatic. At times this is to the detriment of the film: it works best as a kitchen-sink drama, and could’ve done without some of the more clichéd lines of dialogue and obvious earnestness. But the strength of this film lies in its leads: Maguire, Portman and Gyllenhaal all deliver remarkable performances. Portman is convincing as a grief-stricken wife, and Gyllenhaal as a bad boy making good. Maguire is especially haunting as the disturbed and increasingly obsessive war veteran.

The special features on the DVD include an illuminating interview with director Jim Sheridan about the themes of the film, and a featurette about the process of adapting Brodre into Brothers. This isn’t a war film in the strictest sense of the word; rather it is a character-driven family portrait. But these characters aren’t still life – they appear to be real flesh and blood, flawed and fallible, painfully human – and the film is worth watching for this fact alone. 

Mother (Madman) :

4.5 out of 5

Mother is the latest film from Joon-ho Bong, who made a figurative splash in 2007 with The Host – a big budget action film that delivered actual entertainment, genuine thrills and memorable performances. Bong’s 2004 serial killer thriller pic Memories of a Murder was even better. Go find it.

Restraint and attention to detail are two of the hallmarks of Bong’s approach. Minor characters are fully formed – they don’t simply appear, filling in space with the occasional quip or clunky dialogue to aid exposition. By the same token his films aren’t replete with flashy, attention grabbing performances or glacial Occidental meditations of life and loss. This is a director with an acute sense of balance.

Mother’s plot could be lifted from any gumshoe novel of the last 50 years. The dim-witted and slightly tipsy Do-joon (Won Bin) makes an ill-advised pass at a young girl whist staggering home. When she is found murdered the next day Do-joon is arrested and made to sign a confession, despite sloppy denials and even sloppier police work. His protective mother Hye-ja (Kim Hye-ja) steps in to make the case but neither police nor lawyers give a rats. The case is closed and Do-joon ambles off to prison. As the layers are revealed, notions of innocence and guilt are skewered, and the line between protection and criminal interference becomes evermore opaque. A pair of scenes toward the end of the film are staggering; quiet, simple and extraordinarily powerful pay-offs. No dramatic orchestral swells and/or doleful Oscar-baiting sobbing. Taut storytelling and eerie cinematography brilliantly capture the grey nothingness of a senseless crime in an unnamed city; it could be anywhere – and that’s the point. Won Bin and Kim Hye-ja were heaped with praise for their compelling performance – rightly so. Mother is one of the best of the year and Bong confirms his status as a world class director.