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Brothers (2005)
Runtime: 1 hr 57 mins
Synopsis: Connie Nielsen, who has played pivotal roles in such English-language films as GLADIATOR, THE DEVIL'S ADVOCATE, and RUSHMORE, is the powerful and emotional heart of BROTHERS, a moving Danish film set in her home country. Directed by Susanne Bier (who made the Dogme 95 film OPEN HEARTS),... Connie Nielsen, who has played pivotal roles in such English-language films as GLADIATOR, THE DEVIL'S ADVOCATE, and RUSHMORE, is the powerful and emotional heart of BROTHERS, a moving Danish film set in her home country. Directed by Susanne Bier (who made the Dogme 95 film OPEN HEARTS), BROTHERS tells the story of two very different brothers: Jannik (Nikolaj Lie Kaas) is a drunken loser who has just been released from prison for bank robbery and assault, while Michael (Ulrich Thomsen) is a well-respected army major and family man, with a wife, Sarah (Nielsen), and two kids. But when Michael goes off on a mission to Afghanistan to rescue a captured radar man, his helicopter is shot down and he is assumed to have been killed in action. The news devastates Sarah and her in-laws, while Jannik becomes more reckless before stepping in to help her and the kids build a new life. But as Jannik and Sarah grow close, it is discovered that Michael has survived--and has done something that haunts him and threatens everything and everyone. Bier's film is filled with tender moments as well as bitter, frightening, fast-paced scenes that are hard to forget. Nielsen is a standout as Sarah, who tries to balance love and loss and then love again with a man she's not sure she knows anymore. [More]
Genre: Foreign Films
Starring: Connie Nielsen, Ulrich Thomsen, Nicolaj Lie Kass, Lene Maria Christensen, Andre Babikian
Screenwriter: Anders Thomas Jensen
Story: Susanne Bier, Anders Thomas Jensen
Producer: Sisse Graum Jorgensen
Composer: Johan Soderqvist
DVD Info
Release:
Aug 9, 2006
DVD Features:
- Keep Case
- Anamorphic Widescreen - 1.85
- Dual Single Sided
Audio:
- Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound - Danish
Reviews
The performances are impressive, especially Nikolaj Lie Kaas as Jannik and the very sympathetic Nielsen, who relishes the chance to show she's more than just a pretty face.
As for [Connie] Nielsen, she proves that Hollywood has yet to give her a role that's worthy of her talents and gives a strong performance that is effectively the centre of the film.
if every film I see is as satisfying a complex human drama as this, I wouldn't have much to gripe about.
Un drama familiar intimista y bien actuado sobre los efectos que puede producir un trauma en la vida de las personas, y sobre la oportunidad de cambiar.
A poignant reminder that social issues, in the end, are personal matters.
...about the kind of choices that we might make under duress â€" and about the sort of accommodations we must necessarily make with the difficult choices our loved ones make.
This is storytelling at its best, with each scene building toward a crescendo of moral decisions.
The two male leads, bulwarks of the Danish film industry for more than a decade, play off each other like the veterans they are.
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