Maguire & Gyllenhaal: rare passion on "Brothers" scenes

"Natalie Portman has revealed that she felt very comfortable working with Tobey Maguire and Jake Gyllenhaal.The Oscar-nominated actress, who co-stars alongside Maguire and Gyllenhaal in the drama Brothers, has said that the chemistry between the three actors on set came naturally after years of knowing each other, Coming Soon reports.The 28-year-old said: "It was actually really exciting because this is the first time I've ever worked with actors that I knew before. I met Tobey when I was 14, I met Jake when I was 18, so there was a level of familiarity from the first day, which was really a nice way to enter into it.

"We also had a nice rehearsal period for a few weeks before we started, where we got to go over each other's houses and talk about it and try things out". Source: www.digitalspy.co.uk

Tobey Maguire plays an unhinged war veteran, Capt. Sam Cahill in "Brothers".

"Scenes between Maguire and Gyllenhaal emotionally detonate with a rare passion and intensity on screen. But which unfortunately render the scenes of military conflict artificial and unconvincing in comparison. Jim Sheridan (center) and Jake Gyllenhaal 'Brothers' N.Y. Film Premiere Cocktail Party, on 21st November 2009.

It's as if Irish director Jim Sheridan may have been more subjectively focused on personal trauma of his own related to the history of terrorism back in his homeland than a determined scrutiny of the Afghan resistance, which plays out as exaggerated caricatures with no basis in logic or reality connected to current events.The result is a compassionate crafting of lost and found families in wartime, but a seemingly self-censored scenario with the US military establishment and its combat rationale as the troubling invisible elephant in the room. This, while foot soldiers and insurgents alike are set up as the fall guys for precipitating the horrors of war and its psychological scars, not the institutions destroying human beings in the first place, by cultivating in men the concerted impulse to legally engage in murder". Source: newsblaze.com