"Brothers": Oscar contender?
"Originally scheduled for release last fall, "Brothers" was pushed out of 2009 and there were rumors it was headed to this year's Cannes Film Festival. Needless to say, that didn't occur and the film finally found a December release date. It was also unclear who was releasing the Relativity Media financed film. MGM was supposedly original distributor, but Relativity quietly moved the film to Lionsgate where it has a new overall distribution deal. Lionsgate have some true creative mavens and as you can tell by the pretty poster below, "Brothers" is being positioned as a drama, not an in-your-face thriller as the embedded trailer suggests (or at least in its second half).
The movie finds Natalie Portman as a young mother of two whose husband (Tobey Maguire) seemingly is lost in Afghanistan. During a period of mourning she becomes involved with his caring and sensitive brother (Jake Gyllenhaal). When Maguire's character is discovered alive, he comes home a changed man, jealous and suspicious of his wife's actions while he was gone. 
Maguire is refreshingly dark and manic as the type of on edge character we rarely see him play, but the preview doesn't do much to convince anyone Portman or Gyllenhaal are doing anything but the one-note mopeyness both have spent years perfecting. It also doesn't help that the trailer's second half has a forced thriller arc that seems out of place when compared to the picture's poster or the tone of the beginning of the preview. Note to Lionsgate: this trailer may have tested better than other versions, but it feels like you're selling the movie as something it's not and audiences will smell it a mile away. If it's a drama, sell it as a drama and hope the critic's fall your way". Source: www.hitfix.com
"Originally scheduled for release last fall, "Brothers" was pushed out of 2009 and there were rumors it was headed to this year's Cannes Film Festival. Needless to say, that didn't occur and the film finally found a December release date. It was also unclear who was releasing the Relativity Media financed film. MGM was supposedly original distributor, but Relativity quietly moved the film to Lionsgate where it has a new overall distribution deal. Lionsgate have some true creative mavens and as you can tell by the pretty poster below, "Brothers" is being positioned as a drama, not an in-your-face thriller as the embedded trailer suggests (or at least in its second half).
The movie finds Natalie Portman as a young mother of two whose husband (Tobey Maguire) seemingly is lost in Afghanistan. During a period of mourning she becomes involved with his caring and sensitive brother (Jake Gyllenhaal). When Maguire's character is discovered alive, he comes home a changed man, jealous and suspicious of his wife's actions while he was gone. 
Maguire is refreshingly dark and manic as the type of on edge character we rarely see him play, but the preview doesn't do much to convince anyone Portman or Gyllenhaal are doing anything but the one-note mopeyness both have spent years perfecting. It also doesn't help that the trailer's second half has a forced thriller arc that seems out of place when compared to the picture's poster or the tone of the beginning of the preview. Note to Lionsgate: this trailer may have tested better than other versions, but it feels like you're selling the movie as something it's not and audiences will smell it a mile away. If it's a drama, sell it as a drama and hope the critic's fall your way". Source: www.hitfix.com