Brothers

I’ve never seen the Susanne Bier film that Jim Sheridan’s misbegotten Brothers was Americanized from, but I can only hope that it was better cast than this dull sudser. Tobey Maguire plays a special-ops soldier captured in Iraq and presumed dead by his straitlaced wife, played by a typically comatose Natalie Portman. She grows closer to Maguire’s screw-up brother Jake Gyllenhaal in her grief and loneliness, but Maguire’s unexpected return after months of brutal torture soils the sheets. You never buy any of it for a second. Remember when we thought that Natalie Portman was going to become a great or good actress? We used to think the same about Ewan McGregor as well, and look what happened to him. Of course, all of this was before George Lucas obliterated their love of acting. As for Brothers: Skip it.