After Tommy [Jake Gyllenhaal] has been released from prison his brother, Sam [Tobey Maguire], has to leave his wife, Grace [Natalie Portman], and the rest of his family to return to duty in Afghanistan.  Shortly after leaving Sam is in an accident and Sam is taken in a prisoner while his family back home is told he has died.  So while Sam is in Afghanistan trying to survive and get back home to his family, back home they are all grieving for his death and at the same time attempting to move on with their life while Tommy attempts to re-establish himself in the family.

I think I may have walked into this movie with too high an expectation of it.  I felt even though the movie did well for what it was, I somehow left feeling disappointed.  People across the internets are calling Tobey Maguire’s performance Oscar worthy (he got a Golden Globe nomination for it) and sometimes I think people are too quick to throw these terms around, because I have to disagree.  Tobey Maguire was okay and not much more.  Just like everyone else in the film they just did their job.  I found myself more and more intrigued with Jake’s character and acting because he actually had to switch from the foreground and the background continually in the story and he never seemed to be out of place at any point in the film.

The film takes the idea of what would a grieving wife do when someone decides to help out and be close to the family and be the good guy that has the trouble of trying not to overstep his boundaries.  Sheridan did this while at the same time making it even more wrong to cross that line by making this white knight be the dead husband’s brother.  The story itself is well played out and certain scenes will definitely stick with you after leaving the theatre; like Tommy and his three friends fixing up the kitchen and a member of the group wanting to “hug it out” or when Tommy tells Grace about him going and apologizing the woman he had wronged which got him in the jail in the first place.  However, the film really gets into high gear when Sam is found alive and returns home.  When Sam finally goes postal (as was shown in the trailer) it is an amazing moment to see on screen.

So the question is why would I tell you to watch this movie?  I really don’t feel like this movie will be making anyone’s Best of lists of the year and it definitely didn’t seem to resonate with me at all.  I felt like one of those films which did everything pretty much well but in the end will be forgotten not to long after you’ve seen it.  If you’re really interested give it a rent when it hits shelves otherwise I’m not sure what to tell you.

IMDB says 7.7/10

Rotten Tomatoes says 57%

I say 7.0/10