I saw Susanne Bier's original 2005 Danish version of this story in 2007 after this version had been announced. It was a powerful experience. In my review of the original I worried that the redux would amp up the melodrama. The premise of a wayward brother falling for the wife of his presumed dead brother is melodramatic in nature, but Bier masterfully played the material with honesty. While the American version does play for more drama, it does so with solid performances and steady clean direction style.
Sam Cahill (Tobey Maguire, SPIDER-MAN) is a captain in the marines who is about to be deployed again to Afghanistan. Right before he leaves, he goes to pick up his brother Tommy (Jake Gyllenhaal, DONNIE DARKO) from prison, where he had been serving for robbery. Sam's wife Grace (Natalie Portman, CLOSER) and two daughters Isabelle (Bailee Madison, BRIDGE TO TERABITHIA) and Maggie (Taylor Geare, NEW YORK, I LOVE YOU) don't want Sam to leave. Despite a prickly past, Tommy helps out Grace with the girls when Sam is believe to have been killed in battle. In reality, he and another soldier Joe Willis (Patrick Flueger, TV's THE 4400) have been taken prisoner.
While director Jim Sheridan (IN AMERICA) and writer David Benioff (THE KITE RUNNER) stay close to Bier and co-writer Anders Thomas Jensen's original screenplay, the changes do stick out. The Sam character in the original was the central character, while here the story tries to balance between the two stories. Sam and Tommy's father played here as Hank (Sam Shepard, THE NOTEBOOK) is more of an overbearing military type instead of the abstinent type in the original. Additionally, the original played the developing relationship between the Tommy and Grace characters with a more subtle hand. When comparing the two, one should note the setting "kiss" scene. The original felt more natural. The new film also changes the dynamic between Sam and the Joe character slightly, but it makes for more drama when Sam meets Joe's wife Cassie (Carey Mulligan, AN EDUCATION).
It's an interesting comparison in the neo-realistic European style versus the classic American melodrama. Sheridan and his performers play the highs higher. This is not a complaint, but an observation. While in the original Ulrich Thomsen played the Sam character with a quiet discord, Maguire goes for a more unsettled manic depressive performance. Nikolaj Lie Kaas plays the brother as more of a man-boy while Gyllenhaal gives the character a harder edge. His take on the character impressed me the most. Portman, younger than Connie Nielsen, comes off more vulnerable, while Nielsen was more lost. Like the original, the film gains a lot from wonderful performances from its youngest cast members. Kids do say the darnest things, especially when they are scared, confused or angry.
The original is better, but the remake is solid. Sheridan has always been good with family dynamics. One important element the remake retains is the character reactions. These characters contain authenticity because they don't always do what is right. They react. In stressful and painful moments, we lash out or act out of weakness. This is the same in both the stories of Sam, and Grace and Tommy. Note when Grace reads the letter Sam wrote before he left. The timing is perfect and says a lot about how lose is a complex feeling.
Rick DeMott
Animation World Network
Creator of Rick's Flicks Picks
