This superb remake of a 2004 Danish movie by Susanne Bier is a sincere observation of everyday people coping with extraordinary circumstances. Its searing drama is unlike anything since American Beauty (1999), and it’s sure to be an Oscar contender. It’s also being released at a time when President Obama has said he’ll be sending 30,000 more troops to Afghanistan, and it helps us realize that the men and women who don’t come home aren’t just strangers on the evening news -- they could be friends and neighbors. The film touches on the difficulties soldiers face in readjusting to society after committing acts that are unsanctioned outside of war.

Tobey Maguire and Jake Gyllenhaal star as brothers Sam and Tommy Cahill, with Natalie Portman as Sam’s wife, Grace. At the beginning of the film Tommy is coming home from prison, while Sam has been reassigned to duty in Afghanistan. Family scenes reveal that the boys’ father, Hank (Sam Shepard), favors his military son and resents Tommy. It also becomes clear that Hank is an alcoholic. Sam, a career Marine, is a good father and husband, but he displays an inordinate loyalty to the corps that makes him willing to do whatever is asked. It’s worth noting that Maguire and Gyllenhaal are completely believable as brothers, and the same goes for Shepard as their father. I’d never have believed it on paper, but the film convinced me.

When Sam’s helicopter is shot down and Grace receives word of his death, Tommy starts paying more attention to her and his nieces, filling in for Sam. But just when the two start developing feelings for each other (which never go beyond sharing a joint and a kiss), it’s discovered that Sam isn’t dead; he was a prisoner of the Taliban and he escaped after Americans attacked his captors. Through skillfully cut scenes we watch their roles reverse: Tommy, the criminal, becomes an unlikely father surrogate, while Sam, the good son, is forced to commit unspeakable acts.

Sam returns, but he isn’t whole. His guilt pursues him every waking moment, he’s paranoid about what Grace did with his brother while he was gone, and he walks around the backyard holding a gun. The unbearable tension builds until a dinner scene in which it’s finally released, only to multiply like fireworks whose explosions spread and repeatedly detonate.

The cast is dead-on perfect. They seem like the people next door, and they get so lost in their roles that you’ll forget they’re famous actors. Gyllenhaal is entirely natural as Tommy; his transformation into a good guy seems just as unexpected to him as it does to us. Portman is a good mother throughout, and she does much to hold the family together. But it’s Maguire who we remember most. Though he’s done a lot of good work so far in his career, this role is above and beyond, catapulting him from the category of very good actor to that select company of greats. It seems a no-brainer that he’ll be nominated for a lot of awards. Playing Sam coming home from war, he’s truly scary, a bit emaciated and with large ears that make him seem like some sort of conflicted vampire who’s uncomfortable in his own skin. Maguire plays it right to the wire, but never over the top and without a single misstep. When Sam comes unraveled, we believe every bit of it. And Sam Shepard is right on the money as the patriarch of the family, showing with subtle insight that his drinking has clouded his vision.

Some might think this movie is a little too polished to be effective, but I would disagree. It’s just that director Jim Sheridan masterfully composes shots and creates impeccable timing. He knows when to control a scene and when to leave things in the actors’ capable hands. And can we expect a man who knows how to polish a diamond to present it in the rough? I don’t think so. Sheridan’s approach works so well that I had to take some deep breaths before getting up after the final shot. That last scene both is and isn’t a resolution. It ties up the current action without promising a rosy future. War is hell, they say, and hell can be brought home. Soldiers can die, but how can the mentally wounded live again? Brothers asks this question without fully answering it, and the result is a movie that is stimulating, provocative, and a masterpiece of its kind.

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