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Brothers (2024)
Peter Dinklage has proven to be an actor who is always worth watching and the proof of this cinematic pudding is in a silly and confusing road trip comedy called Brothers where I experienced the occasional laugh despite myself and most of them were because of Dinklage.
Dinklage and Josh Brolin play Jady and Moke Monger, respectively, twin brothers who were raised to be criminals by their mother, Cath, who spent most of her life playing Bonnie and Clyde with the boys' stepfather, Glen. A high speed chase after Cath and Glen stole some expensive emeralds ended in Glen's death and Cath leaving the country. Many years later, Jady is in jail and is offered an early parole by a sleazy corrections officer and his retired judge father if he can retrieve those emeralds. Unfortunately, it is revealed during the opening scenes that the emeralds were swallowed by Glen before he died and are still in his stomach, buried under ground, which we learn later is now a golf course.
The screenplay by Etan Cohen and Macon Blair is rich with a lot of very unpleasant characters who happen to be family. It's been awhile since I've seen family members throwing each other under varied buses in the name of greed and self preservation. It's a little maddening watching poor Moke trying to start a new life with a new job and a pregnant wife and Jady just not giving a damn. Further tension is created as Moke's love for his twin motivates him to help his mother despite a lot of buried resentment regarding their mother and who do you think their next is a reunion with?
I did like the fact that the love between these brothers gets strained but never disappears through the closing credits. The relationship between this corrections officer and his dad is a lot more squirmy-worthy, but being the villains, that was okay. There was a storyline detour involving Jady's prison pen pal (Marisa Tomei) and her pet orangutan that just seemed to pad the running time. I liked he fact that the story only addressed Jady being a little person once. The finale in a deserted mall, was extremely confusing and requires a score card to keep track of what's going on.
Director Max Barbakow, who directed a movie I really liked called Palm Springs could have applied a little more discipline to the story, letting a lot of scenes go a lot longer than necessary. On the other hand, this was the longest movie under 90 minutes long that I have ever seen. Brolin works hard as Moke and we get two ridiculously over the top performances from Glenn Close and Oscar winner Brendon Fraser as Cath and the corrections officer. This film also marks the final feature film appearance of M Emmett Walsh as the slimy judge. I also wish a little more imagination had been put into the title. But if you're a hardcore Peter Dinklage fan like myself, this film is worth a look.
Peter Dinklage has proven to be an actor who is always worth watching and the proof of this cinematic pudding is in a silly and confusing road trip comedy called Brothers where I experienced the occasional laugh despite myself and most of them were because of Dinklage.
Dinklage and Josh Brolin play Jady and Moke Monger, respectively, twin brothers who were raised to be criminals by their mother, Cath, who spent most of her life playing Bonnie and Clyde with the boys' stepfather, Glen. A high speed chase after Cath and Glen stole some expensive emeralds ended in Glen's death and Cath leaving the country. Many years later, Jady is in jail and is offered an early parole by a sleazy corrections officer and his retired judge father if he can retrieve those emeralds. Unfortunately, it is revealed during the opening scenes that the emeralds were swallowed by Glen before he died and are still in his stomach, buried under ground, which we learn later is now a golf course.
The screenplay by Etan Cohen and Macon Blair is rich with a lot of very unpleasant characters who happen to be family. It's been awhile since I've seen family members throwing each other under varied buses in the name of greed and self preservation. It's a little maddening watching poor Moke trying to start a new life with a new job and a pregnant wife and Jady just not giving a damn. Further tension is created as Moke's love for his twin motivates him to help his mother despite a lot of buried resentment regarding their mother and who do you think their next is a reunion with?
I did like the fact that the love between these brothers gets strained but never disappears through the closing credits. The relationship between this corrections officer and his dad is a lot more squirmy-worthy, but being the villains, that was okay. There was a storyline detour involving Jady's prison pen pal (Marisa Tomei) and her pet orangutan that just seemed to pad the running time. I liked he fact that the story only addressed Jady being a little person once. The finale in a deserted mall, was extremely confusing and requires a score card to keep track of what's going on.
Director Max Barbakow, who directed a movie I really liked called Palm Springs could have applied a little more discipline to the story, letting a lot of scenes go a lot longer than necessary. On the other hand, this was the longest movie under 90 minutes long that I have ever seen. Brolin works hard as Moke and we get two ridiculously over the top performances from Glenn Close and Oscar winner Brendon Fraser as Cath and the corrections officer. This film also marks the final feature film appearance of M Emmett Walsh as the slimy judge. I also wish a little more imagination had been put into the title. But if you're a hardcore Peter Dinklage fan like myself, this film is worth a look.