"A tale of two conflicting stories, neither of which ever form any real cohesion."

Brothers has some very fine acting. Natalie Portman, Jake Gyllenhaal, and Tobey Maguire make you feel the scars of war, the trauma of sibling rivalry, and the dread of wounded relationships. If you were teaching an acting class, you could credibly point to the three leads elevating the material with dogged professionalism.

There. I wanted to get the praise portion of the film out of the way…