Brothers Far and Near By Fearless Young Orphan Brothers (2004), Directed by Susanne Bier Brothers (2009), Directed by Jim Sheridan This week I did something new for the The Movie Orphan: watched a foreign film and its American remake within three days of each other. Most people who know me are aware of how annoyed I usually am with American remakes, especially of foreign films that I really loved. Remakes are a rather iffy business to begin with, and it offends my sensibilities when a really good movie is remade simply because American audiences can’t be troubled with subtitles. My experiment with the two films refutes my prejudice to some extent, because in the final analysis, I can’t call one movie superior to the other. They were both perfectly good tellings of a very sad story about duty, redemption, death, and losses worse than death. Let’s go over the plot first. This is the easy part, because it is virtually identical in both films with only very minor changes made, and I am going to try not to throw spoilers out there. The only confusing thing is that, of course, the names are different in each film. The Danish film stars Ulrich Thompson, Nikolaj Lie Kaas and Connie Nielsen as the closely-knit triangle, the American film stars Tobey Maguire, Jake Gyllenhaal and Natalie Portman. Michael/Sam, a military officer and imminently decent and responsible man, is happily married to Sarah/Grace, and they have two little daughters. Michael/Sam is being deployed to Afghanistan on the same day that his ne’er do well brother, Jannik/Tommy, is released from prison for assaulting a bank officer during a robbery. The family gathers for a final dinner together that includes the brothers’ parents, where it becomes clear that Michael/Sam is the favorite son, and there is a lot of why-can’t-you-be-like-your-brother talk before that awkward meal ends. Michael/Sam is not gone long before his squad is downed in a helicopter crash, and they are all assumed dead. We must join devastated Sarah/Grace and her daughters as they cope with the initial aftermath of the death, the funeral, the blame, the guilt, the grief. Bad boy Jannik/Tommy, who idolized his brother, stumbles into a bit of shouting and drunken bad behavior but then, naturally and without much thought, steps into Michael/Sam’s shoes as best he can. He begins by repairing Sarah/Grace’s kitchen, then takes the girls under his wing to be a surrogate daddy for them, and becomes Sarah/Grace’s friend and confidant. The transformation is quite touching. As time passes, there are sparks between the two adults, yes, but this is handled very carefully and with the proper respect for the conflicting feelings that the pair experiences. In the meantime, however, Michael/Sam is not dead. He has been captured by enemy troops and undergoes a horrific ordeal of imprisonment and torment, forced into a situation from which no one could escape unscathed. When eventually he is rescued, he is comes out of his prison like a zombie, and never again does he seem to look at the world as if he understands anything about it. Back at home, the family is overjoyed at the return of their lost member. But this is when the story turns to the real issue, one that hopefully not many of us ever have to face: death is sometimes cleaner and less painful than the alternative, which is having someone you love turn into a completely different person. Michael/Sam’s family was grieving, yes, but they were coping as well as could be expected. With the return of Michael/Sam, who is no longer really Michael/Sam but a lookalike shell that has been hollowed out by horror, everyone must grieve all over again, for someone who is standing in the same room with them. The girls don’t recognize their father in this man. Sarah/Grace doesn’t see her husband there. Jannik/Tommy is now caught in the responsibility of caring for his adopted family while being politely asked to step aside, yet now they may need protection from the very man who is replacing him – a man who, by the way, Jannik/Tommy loves very much himself. And unfortunately for everyone, Jannik/Tommy is more like the Michael/Sam everyone used to know, than Michael/Sam himself is now, and Michael/Sam damn well knows it. Uh-oh. I’m going to leave off with the plot now, because what happens in the final third of both films is powerful enough that it needs to be discovered by itself. So actually, either version of the film is worth watching. They’re both quite good, though deeply sad films. If you click on over to imdb.com, you’ll see that their overall star ratings are very close, with the Danish version sitting on a 7.6 percent and the American version on a 7.2. Though you must take into account that the ratings system is a bit skewed over there, with movies always slanting about a grade level lower than they deserve, the interesting thing is how close together those scores fall. I felt that each version did some things better than the other, yet neither film took any bad missteps. The overall story is a compelling drama because of its realism and frankness. The acting is commendable in both cases, though I’d have to say that the American supporting cast makes a greater impression. Most notably Sam Shepherd appears as Tommy and Sam’s father, and also keep your eye on the girl who plays Sam and Grace’s older daughter. That’s a powerful little performance she gives. If you have the time and the inclination, I’d recommend watching both, and watching them close together. The two films are so similar that if you put more than a few weeks between viewings, you might believe that you’ve seen exactly the same thing. There are indeed some subtle differences. The biggest is the attitude toward a returning, badly damaged soldier and his subsequent actions. Think about All-American Tobey Maguire following the role exactly as Ulrich Thomsen played, in an unchanged script, and imagine the reaction of the general public. I’d be willing to bet there were plenty of meetings on this, and maybe even focus groups gathered to let the filmmakers know that this kind of thing had to be handled a bit differently in the United States. I wish I could say more, but again, no spoiling. And I’ll repeat this: if you watched the two versions of the film, say, a year apart, you might never notice the difference. This was quite a fascinating look at the way that small things: certain words, hand gestures, extra shots or missing ones, can alter the course of a film. It’s a very fine line that movies walk, and this certainly made me appreciate how delicate the art is, of putting together a movie that really conveys what the director wants, and how easily meaning can be changed. An observant audience is watching everything that happens on the screen; this is our collection of facts that make up the universe we’re seeing. Every bit of information up there matters in the story that is being told. .