Lack of good storyline.

This movie was so-so. It had it's moments, but wasn't the greatest.

Story: It's very simple but honestly that is fine.

The film may be flawed, but its message is not.

Very moving film takes seemingly familiar elements (two brothers in love with the same woman, a Cain and Abel good brother/bad brother set up) and makes it complicated, disturbing and sad. Abetted by excellent performances all around, this Danish film tells of a woman whose husband goes off to the Afghanistan War an is presumed dead. She forms a bond with his previously"bad" brother who tries to clean up his act for her and her children in the absence of his brother... only to have the brother return home from war - having been a prisoner - a deeply damaged man.As in "Things We Lost In the Fire"€ Bier shows a knack for setting us up to assume we know the roads a story will tread, only to take us somewhere richer, more affecting and more deeply human. There are flaws, but any film that quietly packs this kind of emotional punch about the damage that war does, the way people can change, and the deep messy-ness of families deserves to be seen.

We all know that American cinema can't help itself to do remake of foreign films... That's why i saw Brothers before this original danish movie. When in this one all appears to be shot in steady cam, the American way tries to put some melodramatic trigger.This version is about feelings, about situation and personal change: life make us evolve like every decision we take and nothing is good or bad, there is a lot of in between. The chose to accumulate the short shootings, practically no music or just a few notes on one instrument,are trying to bring us along this day to day story really well interpreted. The characters in their flaws or every day basis are believable, there is not so much emphasis like in the good but too much American film. It's in their nature to modify, adjust the deepness of the movie and after seeing this 2004 version, we actually miss something: this authenticity.In both versions, dialogs, ellipses are exactly the same, but characters turned out to be different. We actually have to exact opposite films and this is a real challenge to see both.

I saw this gripping and haunting movie in 2005, and spent a long time thinking about it. I began a review, but never finished it because I could not find words adequate to convey the depth of my feelings; even now, I'm not sure that I can do justice to the story (which has been very ably described by many reviewers here already).Thematically, however, it's about a moral dilemma and a man's attempt to justify his decision - initially to himself, and then to others. Hence, in that, the story shares a similar theme as in Sophie's Choice (1982); those who have seen Meryl Streep as the agonist in that film know what she had to do.The twist here, however, is that the soldier faces inevitable death for himself, regardless of the choice he makes. The only question he must resolve is: if I do the right thing, I die immediately - if I do the wrong thing, I die at some other time. But, die I will...and so will another, regardless of what I do. Hence, in biblical terms, the viewer is implicitly asked: to what extent are we all our brother's keepers?Faced with that sort of choice, the soldier has only hope to hold on to - hope that he will not die too soon. And, fortunately for him, the plot allows the 'cavalry' to arrive before that happens.And that event sets up the story of that soldier's rebirth and redemption - all against a backdrop of a wife who thought he was dead, and an ex-con brother who puts his life on the line to help his brother come to terms with the enormity of his...choice, which may or may not have been a crime. I'd not seen any of these Danish actors before. Quite simply, they cannot be faulted in their performances. Technically, the film was well produced and presented. The script was brutally realistic, with the crucial torture scenes in Afghanistan almost unbearable.This is not a film for children. Nor is it a film for adults who cannot accept the truth about what soldiers can face in war.

It's not hard to classify this one--it's an intense psychological drama. Whatever mood you were in before you started, you are most likely to be in a somber mood at the end. Perhaps the less you know about the story the more it will involve you. This is one of those movies that makes you ask the questions, "What would I have done in that situation," and "How would I have lived with my decision."The main thrust of the story is an intimate examination of how a tragedy affects family dynamics. Nature abhors a vacuum. Guilt, jealousy, and doubt drive this to an intense climax.Parformances are first rate, particularly Connie Nielsen.