Although it has its amusing moments, in eneral the plot does not convince.

It’s fine. It's literally the definition of a fine movie. You’ve seen it before, you know every beat and outcome before the characters even do. Only question is how much escapism you’re looking for.

It really made me laugh, but for some moments I was tearing up because I could relate so much.

Great example of an old-fashioned, pure-at-heart escapist event movie that doesn't pretend to be anything that it's not and has boat loads of fun being its own ludicrous self.

In 2001 the invasion in Afghanistan and especially the ensuing occupation took me by surprise. For in the eighties the Mujahideen had been glorified as the brave freedom fighters, who defended the sovereignty of their nation. President Reagan stressed their rights to live according to their religious beliefs and (backward) traditions. Since 2005, when the international occupation was extended to the hostile south, I was fascinated and indignant at our presence, in particular since the Dutch forces played a (relatively) appreciable role. Seventy years ago the Netherlands itself were occupied by the Nazi regime, without reason. What would this role reversal do to the minds of our soldiers? Although war films are not my primary focus, the Danish film "Brodre" interested me. For it elaborates on the theme of occupation, and Denmark is in many respects the sister nation of the Netherlands. The film tells the story of a Danish officer, who snaps morally during his mission in Afghanistan, and commits a murder. He returns to his family as a mental wreck. The mental problems of veteran soldiers after a military campaign in alien regions are well known since the Vietnam war, and add to the enormous costs of such operations. The narration in Brodre is credible and succeeds in upholding the suspense. We witness the incomprehension of the colleagues and the family with regard to the traumatized behavior of the returned soldier. Nevertheless I am not certain if I have truly grasped the message of the film, in particular the relation between the two brothers. Morally they switch sides: whereas officer Michael commits an atrocious crime, his brother Jannik puts an end to his past as a robber. Obviously the whole family balances on the verge of social dysfunctionality. The father of the two brothers is rude and for instance disposed to drunk driving. The wife of Michael is not the very picture of the faithful spouse. And his children are disobedient, and one of them even gossips without justice about a supposed affair between Jannik and her mother. In the beginning Michael seems to be the solid corner stone of this fragile family. The spectator does not expect that this man of all people is capable of committing a horrible murder. One is inclined to attribute the derailment to the particular borderline nature of his social environment. Still on reflection the story has a more general validity, since military personnel often originates from morally floating communities (few strong personalities will be willing to risk their lives in dubious expeditions). It is interesting that exactly the same theme was addressed in the Dutch film "Stella's oorlog", and therefore a comparison seems obvious. For me the comparison results in a draw. Brodre is more thrilling, whereas Stella's oorlog has the more credible story. In Stella's oorlog the traumas result from a derailed behavior during combat, and friendly fire. The atmosphere in these North-European films is strikingly different from American counterparts like "The deer hunter" or "Apocalypse now", that depict heroism, targeted aggression and inflexibility. If you are interested in the facts, you might consider seeing the documentary "Rethink Afghanistan".

The family man Major Michael Lundberg (Ulrich Thomsen) is happily married with his beloved Sarah (Connie Nielsen) and adores his two daughters Natalia (Sarah Juel Werner) and Camilla (Rebecca Løgstrup Soltau). His younger brother Jannik (Nikolaj Lie Kaas) has just left prison on probation for bank robbery and has issues with his father Henning (Bent Mejding). Michael invites Jannik to have dinner at home with their family. When Michael arrives in Afghanistan, his helicopter crashes and he is considered missing in action. However, he is captured and sent to a camp where he meets the radar technician Niels Peter (Paw Henriksen). After a long period imprisoned, Micahel is forced to kill Niels with a bar to survive. Meanwhile Jannick comforts Sarah and the children and he becomes close to Michael's family. When Michael is rescued, he comes back home emotionally detached and paranoid. Further, he is convinced that Sarah and Jannik have slept together during his absence. When the envious Natalia lies during the birthday dinner party of her sister telling that her mother and Jannik had shagged to upset her father, the disturbed Michael triggers an intense paranoia jeopardizing his family. "Brødre" is a powerful and realistic drama about lives destroyed by war. This film is extremely well-acted, with an adequate cast that gives credibility to the plot led by the gorgeous and excellent Connie Nielsen. The sensitive director Susanne Bier of "Efter Brylluppet" makes another extraordinary movie based on the family dynamics. Jim Sheridan remade this film in 2009, but in a shallow teen "americanization" version. My vote is nine.Title (Brazil): "Brothers"

Brothers (2004)A remarkable movie in several ways. The first is just that it's well made, with two main layers of story line that are compelling, and some surprising and mostly believable turns. The second is that we (in the U.S.) have a look at the war in Afghanistan from non-American eyes. The echoes are inevitable, and so are the differences, in attitude by the soldiers and in public reaction. The lead actor Ulrich Thomsen is compelling and versatile, and in some ways makes the movie. His range (which you have to see for yourself or you'll be tipped off) is terrific. His wife, played by better known Connie Nielsen (in her first Danish movie, even though she is Danish herself, and knows seven languages) is perfect, too, though she plays someone who is admittedly "boring" and so has less range. Finally, the lead man's brother, Nikolaj Lie Kaas, is charming and a wild card, making the trio appropriately imbalanced. I say all this because it's an acting movie, and a movie about relationships and therefore about plot. It's not a war movie, but more about the effects of war. It's recommended for people who have absorbed American movies like The Hurt Locker. But more than that, it's just a well made, emotional, human interest film. There are a couple flaws (including the key part about the helicopter crash, which just doesn't hold up to common sense), but they are small in the larger, gritty realism of the whole.

The Danish film, "Brothers," offers a powerful reminder that the dehumanizing effects of war often extend far beyond the confines of the battlefield.In this tale of two siblings who couldn't be more different, Michael is the "good" son, a solid family man with a wife and two daughters and a very strong sense of moral rectitude. Jannik is the "bad" son, a ne'er-do-well drifter who is routinely in trouble with the law and who, as the movie opens, has just been released from prison for seriously injuring a woman in a botched robbery attempt. When Michael is shipped to Afghanistan as part of a U.N. fighting force, he is quickly shot down and taken prisoner by the Taliban militia. Believing him to be dead, the military mistakenly informs Michael's family that he has been killed in action. Jannik is so devastated by the loss of his brother that he vows to help Sarah raise her two daughters. Against their better judgment, Jannik and Sarah begin to develop romantic feelings for one another, a situation that leads to great complications after Michael is eventually freed from his captivity and he attempts to pick up where he left off back home. Unfortunately, Michael's return to normalcy is further complicated by the memory of a heinous act he was "forced" to commit against one of his fellow soldiers while in the camp. Before long, Michael is taking out his anger, guilt and frustration on his own terrified family, and in a sudden role reversal, it is Jannik who must now come to the aid of the brother who had always been there for him when he needed him most. In many ways, this is a story about two brothers who both find redemption for sins of the past.Although the love triangle aspect could easily have relegated "Brothers" to the realm of soap opera, the movie manages to avoid that fate, thanks partly to the restrained way in which the script deals with the subject matter and partly to the sense of reality that permeates the film. These are all fully fleshed-out human beings trying to cope with events far beyond their control - be they the brutalizing psychological effects of a war in a foreign land or the more familiar entanglements and complexities in all things related to the human heart. No one is made out to be the "hero" or the "villain," which belies the wisdom of labeling people in such simplistic terms to begin with (as the boys' father clearly does, having long ago declared Michael to be his one "true" son and all but disowning the troublesome Jannik). The film is filled with haunting, memorable moments that touch us at a deep level, as we see a decent man being driven to madness by a single gruesome action in his life, as well as the devastating ripple effect it has on those he loves.The actors - Ulrich Thomsen, Nikolaj Lie Kaas, and the exquisite Connie Nielsen - truly make us care about the characters they are playing, and the final scene of confession and redemption is haunting in its subtlety and simplicity.As one of the first films willing to acknowledge, let alone explore, the current wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the small-scaled but memorable "Brothers," written by Anders Thomas Jensen and co-written and directed by Susanne Bier, earns a place in movie history.