Trailer: Brothers
I haven’t heard Jim Sheridan’s remake of Susanne Bier’s Brødre being talked up in Oscar circles even with the expanded best picture field, but with a December release date and this irritatingly earnest trailer (with a helpful U2 soundtrack in case you’re not feeling the earnestness), it’s starting to smell a lot like Oscar bait.
This is the sort of thing that could prove to be an acting tour de force (and we like Natalie Portman, we really do) in which case it might be tolerable, but the trailer doesn’t give much hope.
Tobey Maguire’s bug-eyed crazy guy character just reminds us of the unfairly maligned The Good German, a film deemed unworthy by the unimaginative Oscar gods. Also, be skeptical of awards hungry movies that premiere their trailers on ET.
Brothers opens December 4th.
via: In Contention
Filed under: Trailers
Tags: Jake Gyllenhaal, Jim Sheridan, Natalie Portman, Tobey Maguire
I have faith in Jim Sheridan and Natalie Portman, but yeah, this definitely looks like Oscar bait. I’ll definitely be seeing it, though.
Again, trailers playing to the lowest common denominator aren’t really a fair way to judge a movie, but jeez, I wish they made movies for people who actually go to movies every week and not the ones who can only be dragged to the theater a couple times a year.
Jake Gyllenhaal hasn’t really showed me anything yet, but I like Portman also. Sheridan hasn’t been prolific lately, but he’s saved up enough good will to earn the benefit of a doubt I suppose.
I agree about Gyllenhaal. I like him, I think he’s talented, but he’s never given a performance that has made me stop and really take notice.
I do like Natalie Portman. There are times where I wish the Star Wars prequels never happened (for many reasons), because most people who know Portman only know her from those films. And, well, let’s face it, she was baaaad. Every thing about those films was bad, though.
Well, Jim Sheridan is not one to shy away from making Oscar-bait but he also made In America, which was a pretty good movie yet also yielded one of the most grating trailers I’ve ever seen.
I have hope for this one because I like the folks involved, but I’m really disappointed that the trailer appears to give away 90% of the narrative.
I want to see the original Danish film first. I’ve really enjoyed Susanna Bier’s other work and generally think a lot of Jim Sheridan and most of this cast. But yeah, the trailer looks sooooo clicheed and grating, it’s disheartening.
And where does Sheridan keep getting these matched sets of cute little 8-10-year-old girls?
Still, a different look for Portman (grown up looking, all of a sudden) and especially lean, mean, paranoid Tobey Maguire. It looks like he’s still got some of that black goo from Spidey 3 in his system.
I had reasonably high regard for the Danish film, upon which this new work is based, in fact it is Blier’s finest film. Sheridan has the ability to pull it off, even if his career is a mixed bag. I have to agree with Joel that the trailer does give away quite a bit–I saw it last night before the screening of Michael Mann’s PUBLIC ENEMIES (I am disappointed with the Johnny Depp-Christian Bale starrer, but I’ll save that for the Watercooler) and that does seem to be the case.
I guess Sheridan’s greatest film is his first: MY LEFT FOOT, but IN THE NAME OF THE FATHER and THE FIELD have their moments. I am not quite the fan myself of IN AMERICA, which does have its supporters.