Line #90 Film/Brothers2009


1	[[quoteright:184:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/brothers.png]]
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3	''Brothers'' is a 2009 psychological war thriller directed by Jim Sheridan. It is [[ForeignRemake a remake]] of Susanne Bier's Danish film ''Brødre'' from 2004.
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5	When his helicopter goes down during his fourth tour of duty in Afghanistan, Marine Sam Cahill (Creator/TobeyMaguire) is presumed dead. Back home, brother Tommy (Creator/JakeGyllenhaal) steps in to look over Sam’s wife, Grace (Creator/NataliePortman), and two children. Sam’s surprise homecoming triggers domestic mayhem.
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7	Tobey Maguire received a Golden Globe nomination for Best Actor in a Motion Picture Drama for his performance.
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9	Not to be confused with the 1984 sitcom of the same name, nor with the sequel to ''Film/MarathonMan''.
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12	!!''Brothers'' contains examples of:
13	* AbusiveOffspring: Isabelle becomes this to Sam in the final act, [[KickTheDog telling him that he should have stayed dead and rubbing in Grace and Tommy's "affair" to his face]]. She does [[MyGodWhatHaveIDone come to regret this]], though.
14	* ArtisticLicenseGeography:
15	** Marine bases tend to be on the coasts, since the Marines are a naval service. But the base Sam is at is portrayed as being far inland. The two main Marine bases in North America are Camp Pendleton and Camp Leujene, which are both located in warm areas, whereas the film is set in a snowy, cold locale.
16	** [[spoiler:Joe Willis]] is buried near the base Sam works at, when he would probably be buried in his hometown (given as being in the Midwest) or maybe in Arlington National Cemetery given his status as a POW.
17	* ArtisticLicenseLawEnforcement: Near the end, the DOD Police respond to the fight at [[spoiler: Sam's house]] with their lights and sirens blaring, alerting him to their presence and causing him to go outside to confront them armed. In real life, the police tend to respond to domestic disturbances with their lights and sirens turned off in order to prevent precisely this sort of thing from happening. They also, in all likelihood, would've shot him in real life the moment he started firing his weapon into the air.
18	* ArtisticLicenseMilitary:
19	** In real life, Sam would not have been declared dead, only missing, since they never found his remains. Even today, there are still soldiers from wars that happened many decades ago who are still declared missing since their remains were never found, even though, in all likelihood, they are dead.
20	** Sam is a Marine, but the base he is assigned to is called a fort. Only army bases are called forts; Marine bases are called camps.
21	** Sam and his fellow Marines are riding in an Army helicopter from the 173rd Airborne when they are [[spoiler:shot down]], even though it would be more fitting for them to be riding in a Marine or Navy helicopter.
22	* ArtisticLicensePolitics: The film portrays the Taliban as being some sort of secular Afghan nationalist group, when they are actually ultra-religious fanatics with connections to Pakistan. Also, they keep their capture of Sam and Willis on the low for a long time, which is odd since typically when such groups capture Americans, they tend to immediately go public with it in order to boast about it and hopefully extract some concessions.
23	* AtomicFBomb: Sam unleashes a genuinely aggressive one after he dismantles the newly-repaired kitchen.
24	* BerserkerTears:
25	** Sam is clearly in deep anguish as he thrashes the kitchen.
26	** When Isabelle brutally chastises his father, you could see the tears in her eyes.
27	* BigBrotherInstinct: {{Inverted\|Trope}}. Tommy is the most concerned for Sam's emotional state, as he tries his best to comfort him and even defends him from the cops who arrive at the house.
28	* BigSisterBully: Isabelle becomes this to Maggie during the latter's birthday party, in which she rudely takes her gifts, making [[ShellShockedVeteran Sam]] angry.
29	* BigLittleBrother: Tommy is around four inches taller than his older brother Sam.
30	* BittersweetEnding: [[spoiler:Sam finally decides to go get mental help after suffering a mental breakdown over thinking Grace and Tommy were together, but on the downside, Grace and the family now have to struggle with Sam's PTSD as a result.]]
31	* BlackSheep: Tommy. Due to being a drunken wreck, his family (especially his father) doesn't trust him. This does change when he manages to clean up his act, though.
32	* BrattyHalfPint: PlayedForDrama. Isabelle's brattiness towards her father at the birthday party instigates the latter's UnstoppableRage.
33	* BreakTheCutie: Sam becomes an emotional wreck as soon as he returns home, culminating in going on an UnstoppableRage after thinking Grace cheated on him with Tommy.
34	* BrokenPedestal: Sam becomes this to his children (especially Isabelle) when he returns from his tour of duty. Initially, they looked up to him and respected him, but his new hostile and antisocial attitude causes them to fear him, with Isabelle harshly chastising him at the dinner party and telling him they prefer Tommy over him.
35	* BrokenTears: Sam has these when he kills Joe in front of the Afghans.
36	-->'''Sam:''' '''''THERE!!!'''''
37	* CallingTheOldManOut: After finding out he's alive, Isabelle is upset about Sam letting himself get captured and not showing up at her birthday party, and she yells at him at Maggie's birthday party. A rare example of this trope being completely unjustified.
38	* CanNotSpitItOut: [[spoiler:Sam doesn't want to tell anyone that he killed Joe.]]
39	* ChildrenAreInnocent: Maggie, who is considerably more sympathetic than her {{Jerkass}} of a sister.
40	* ClusterFBomb: Sam's entire HeroicBSOD towards Grace when he comes back home and believes that she is having an affair with Tommy.
41	-->'''Sam''': ''[[SuddenlyShouting YOU KNOW WHAT I DID?!!]]'' TO FUCKING GET BACK TO YOU?!! YOU ''FUCKING'' '''''BITCH!!''''' YOU HOW HE FUCKING ''SUFFERED?!!'' HE FUCKING SUFFERED BECAUSE OF YOU! AND WHAT HAVE YOU DONE WITH MY FUCKING HOUSE AND MY FUCKING KIDS, GRACE?! ''(rips the refrigerator door open)'' YOU'RE FUCKING MY BROTHER, YOU'RE FUCKING MY BROTHER IN MY FUCKING HOUSE! [[AnguishedDeclarationOfLove I LOVE YOU, GRACE]]!\
42	'''Grace''': Sam, please. Our girls, please.\
43	'''Sam''': YOU KNOW HOW MUCH I LOVE YOU?! YOU WHAT I... ''CHRIST!'' DO YOU KNOW WHAT I CAN FUCKING..- YOU KNOW WHAT I CAN DO WITH THESE FUCKING ''HANDS'', '''''GRACE?!!!''''' (repeatedly slaps his face with his hands) YOU ''FUCK!!'' (breaks various things across the kitchen room) ''CHRIST!'' '''''FUCK!!!'''''
44	* CoolUncle: The girls didn't have a high-opinion of Tommy at first, but once he starts cleaning up his act, they (particularly Isabelle) grow closer to him, even preferring him over Sam when the latter returns from Afghanistan.
45	* DaddysGirl: Maggie has a hard time dealing with Sam's death at first.
46	* DramaticIrony:
47	** Sam mistakenly believes Grace started a relationship with Tommy while he was in Afghanistan and presumed dead. [[spoiler:Though they did kiss, they didn't proceed out of respect for him.]]
48	** Isabelle gets angry at her father for favoring Maggie and tells him he should have stayed dead, oblivious to the amount of trauma and suffering he went through [[spoiler:(including killing his second-in-command)]] in order to survive and return to her.
49	* DrivenToSuicide: [[spoiler:Subverted. Sam looks like he's going to shoot himself when the cops arrive but then changes his mind]].
50	* EveryoneHasStandards: Despite lashing out at him earlier, Isabelle is nonetheless distraught to witness Sam brutally smash the kitchen in an emotional rage.
51	* FamilyMan: Played with. Sam was initially the well-respected one in his family, but this changes after he returns to America as a complete mental wreck.
52	* AFatherToHisMen: Sam is distraught when his captors [[spoiler:force him to kill Joe]].
53	* FoolishSiblingResponsibleSibling:
54	** Sam and Tommy, although the roles switch after Sam returns from combat.
55	** Subverted for Maggie and Isabelle. Maggie can't be classified as "foolish," since she's only 5, and Isabelle certainly isn't responsible, as her ugly behavior causes her father to have a huge breakdown.
56	* HeroicBSOD: Sam suffers from one when he thinks that Grace is having an affair with his brother Tommy.
57	* HourglassPlot: Sam, the upright Army officer, is the responsible sibling to Tommy's drunken screw-up. However, Tommy starts straightening out his life, while Sam comes back from combat riddled with PTSD and unable to function.
58	* IDidWhatIHadToDo: {{Deconstructed\|Trope}}. Sam kills Joe to save himself from the Afghans and return home, but his severe regret over this makes him unstable.
59	* InelegantBlubbering: Sam does this as he wrecks the kitchen.
60	* IWishedYouWereDead: Played with. Isabelle says this to her father for favoring her younger sister. By the look on her face upstairs during his outburst, it's clear Isabelle will hold guilt for this act for the rest of her life.
61	* {{Jerkass}}:
62	** The Afghans who put Sam and Joe through ColdBloodedTorture force the former at gunpoint to kill the latter with a pipe.
63	** Isabelle taunts her father at the birthday party, which is even worse considering he is suffering from PTSD ([[DramaticIrony albeit not to Isabelle's knowledge]]).
64	* KarmaHoudini: {{Downplayed\|Trope}}. Though Isabelle doesn't get any punishment for driving her father to a nervous breakdown and attempting suicide, she's just as affected by her father's return as the rest of her family.
65	* KickTheDog:
66	** Even after Joe gives them the message they want, the Afghans force Sam to beat him to death anyway.
67	** Isabelle blatantly telling her father that she wished he "stayed dead" and her mother would rather "sleep with Uncle Tommy". This is especially heartbreaking since he practically went through hell just to return to her and her sister.
68	* LargeHam: Sam sure knows how to ham it up when he smashes things believing that his wife Grace is cheating with Tommy. Creator/TobeyMaguire even considered this performance exhausting.
69	* MistakenForCheating: Sam believes Grace and Tommy had a sexual relationship in his absence. Grace and Tommy did share a kiss but immediately regretted it.
70	* MyGodWhatHaveIDone:
71	** Sam feels deeply remorseful for killing Joe in Afghanistan, thus he [[CannotSpitItOut refuses to tell anyone about this]].
72	** {{Implied\|Trope}} with Isabelle. She nervously looks down at her father's violent outburst, possibly out of guilt for lashing out at him at the party.
73	* NervousWreck: Once he returns to America, Sam becomes this. It only gets worse from there.
74	* NeverFoundTheBody: News comes that Sam's helicopter has crashed over the water, killing all the marines aboard. In reality, the Afghans have taken him and a hometown friend, Private Joe Willis, a prisoner in a mountain village. Only Sam makes it, though.
75	* NoHoldsBarredBeatdown: Sam reluctantly beats Joe with a metal pipe in order to escape from his captors, killing him.
76	* NoIndoorVoice: Sam shouts at the top of his lungs during his breakdown.
77	* NotHimself: Grace wonders why Sam has been acting timid since he got back from Afghanistan.
78	* TheParanoiac: Sam starts to become one after the incident. He even pulls a gun out of his back pocket when a faint noise is heard outside. He eventually gets better, however.
79	* ParentalFavoritism: Despite their love for Isabelle, Sam and Grace gave Maggie more attention than her. [[LampshadeHanging Lampshaded]] by Isabelle.
80	* ParentalNeglect: Sam starts to distance himself from his kids due to his PTSD. His kids start resenting him for it, especially Isabelle, who spells it out to him in the harshest way possible.
81	* ParentalSubstitute: Tommy becomes this to Isabelle and Maggie while Sam is away in Afghanistan. Isabelle starts to prefer him over Sam when the latter returns.
82	* POWCamp: For the first half of the film, the scenes involving Sam.
83	* PushoverParents: {{Downplayed\|Trope}}. Grace does call out Isabelle for her nasty behavior at the party but still doesn't give her an effective punishment.
84	* RageBreakingPoint: Throughout the movie, Sam gradually becomes angry as he learns the hard way how his family moved on without him, despite all the hellish experiences in Afghanistan he kept his family from knowing. His bitterness toward Tommy, whom he believes cheated with his wife[[note]]they did share a kiss but didn't actually go with it[[/note]], doesn't help, but it's when his daughter, Isabelle, harshly chides him for favoring her younger sister that the whole situation finally pushes him over the edge, sparking his UnstoppableRage in the climax.
85	* ReplacementGoldfish: Subverted. Tommy and Grace attempt to begin a relationship while Sam is presumed dead but don’t go through with it primarily because Tommy serving as one proves to be too awkward. Sam’s belief that Tommy has replaced him drives much of the plot.
86	* SacrificialLamb: Joe. The Afghan soldiers force Sam to kill him as they say if he doesn't die, Sam will.
87	* SadisticChoice: The Afghans tell Sam either he beats Joe to death with a pipe or they shoot him in the head and then shoot Joe. He chooses the former when he hears from their translator that Sam has a family to reunite with.
88	* SanitySlippage: Sam is clearly in a poor mental state by the time he returns from Afghanistan, but his paranoia over Grace's alleged affair with Tommy only exacerbates this to the point he completely loses it near the end of the film.
89	* ShellShockedVeteran: Sam returns from his tour of duty in Afghanistan and suffers immensely from PTSD when he tries to have a normal life back home.
90	* SiblingYinYang:
91	** Sam and Tommy; the former being respectable and forthright and the latter being hedonistic and disorderly. However, their dynamic switches when Sam returns from Afghanistan.
92	** Maggie and Isabelle also qualify. Maggie is rather innocent and well-mannered, while Isabelle (at least after Sam's return) behaves rather selfishly and condescendingly, which ultimately drives [[ShellShockedVeteran Sam]] up the wall in the climax.
93	* TraumaCongaLine: Sam gets captured by the Afghans alongside his friend, then is forced to ''kill'' said friend to get back home and return to his family. Once he does make it back home, he becomes anxious over Grace supposedly having an affair with his brother, then gets [[KickTheDog callously insulted by his resentful daughter]], in which [[UnstoppableRage he finally loses his marbles]].
94	* TheUnfavorite:
95	** Initially, Tommy was this for being a hedonistic mess, but this changes when he manages to clean up his act.
96	** Isabelle ''feels'' she is this compared to Maggie, triggering her resentment and eventual hostility towards Sam.
97	* UnstoppableRage: Happens to Sam when he thinks Grace had an affair with his brother. He proceeds to brutally thrash the kitchen in the process.
98	* UnwittingInstigatorOfDoom: Isabelle's callous remarks towards her father at the party lead to the latter's notorious breakdown.
99	* UsedToBeMoreSocial: After coming home from Afghanistan, Sam starts to distance himself from his loved ones, getting them all concerned and upset.
100	* WhatTheHellHero: Though not a hero per se, Isabelle does get called out by Grace for her nasty behavior at the birthday dinner.
101	* WiseBeyondTheirYears: Downplayed. Isabelle is about eight and later about nine, but apparently knows what sex is. Despite this, she lacks the maturity and emotional intelligence to recognize that [[KickTheDog telling her PTSD-addled father "he should have stayed dead" is incredibly cruel]].
102	* YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness: After Joe cracks and gives them the video message they want [[note]]that America shouldn’t be there and let the country of Afghanistan be with its citizens[[/note]], the Afghans force Sam, at gunpoint, to beat Joe to death with a pipe.

Context Film / Brothers2009