Starring: Ulrich Thomsen, Connie Nielsen, Nikolaj Lie Kaa

Directed By: Susanne Bier

A pic from the film Brodre

Sometimes it just takes a change in regular Family dynamics to make something truly great. This story is about two brothers who have a strained relationship. One of them is a war hero the other is total vagabond who has just come out of prison for some assault charges. The two are uniquely different characters but the only thing joining them is relationship. They would have never known each other otherwise. This is what provides the crux for this whole dynamic. In between all this there is a woman played by the undeniably beautiful Connie Nielsen. She oozes with such grace and sexuality that it is hard to look away from this performance. Susanne Bier as a director is still with many loose ends. But it is some moments in her pictures that capture the minds of viewer.

The director almost immerses herself in the death of a single person and tries to claw herself up with a clever plot. But here lays her weakness in bringing a hopeful ending she knows that there were many bad mistakes she had to pass to reach there. But Susanne somehow reaches there and holds on to it for dear life. She gives the characters ample time live in their characters; it almost feels like they have lived this life a thousand times. But really to bring something out of one of the archaic motifs of cinema like the family is totally commendable.

The film is shot in true Dogme style pulling references from many of the Thomas Vinterberg and Lars Von Trier movies. But the use of this style really gives us a sense of disjointed time and also major continuity issues. The film maybe flawed but there are some truly memorable moments that really wash off all these mishaps. The plot does create curiosity even after everything is revealed. The film just doesn’t deal with just the family. There is a story happening in the foreground about how the soldiers have to go through so many traumas. The scenes of the war are shot with alot of anger towards what the war has taken from these soldiers. The initial sequences of the film made me feel like a dream state of things is going to be achieved. But that was created with many shots of the actors in the bed falling into nightmares that just can be realized but never seen.

Another aspect I would like to talk about is the performances of the kids who are really threatened by all that is happening to them. The way they respond to things happening to them is something to be seen. But without these performances this film would have lost most of its luster. But the end is where everything sort of falls into place and there is sense of hope. But really no one would wish for such a fate yet there is peaceful end to it all.

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