Blood, ‘Brothers’

Jim Sheridan, the celebrated director who time after time plunges the depths of devastation and hardscrabble life change, returns this Friday as an Oscar contender with Brothers, a revelatory remake of the acclaimed Swedish melodrama Brodre with stars Jake Gyllenhaal, Tobey Maguire and Natalie Portman. Maguire portrays Capt. Sam Cahill, who is lost in Afghanistan and presumed dead by the U.S. Army. As Portman’s Grace Cahill, Sam’s bereaved wife and mother of his two children, tries to cope with the loss back home, she becomes reacquainted with Cahill’s black sheep brother, Tommy, played by Gyllenhaal. But what begins as empathy and help around the house with the kids soon turns into a deeper relationship as the months go by and Grace moves her life forward without her husband. Then the unthinkable happens. Sam Cahill is found alive and returns home to his family an emotionally scarred veteran. With Tommy now a major part of Sam’s family’s life, Sam becomes more volatile than ever and Grace must choose what is best for her and her children in this shocking and poignant drama. Clifton Collins Jr., Carey Mulligan and Sam Shepard co-star. Rated R. (Image courtesy Lori Sebastian)