BROTHERS

2020’s time loop rom-com Palm Springs was a delightfully pleasant surprise in a year, lets face it, was a dumpster fire for many of us. It was funny and sweet, which charming, charismatic performances from two ultra likeable leads, and became one of my favourite films of that year.

So when I read that director Max Barbakow was returning to Prime Video with a heist comedy starring - amongst others - Peter Dinklage, Glenn Close, Josh Brolin and Brendan Fraser I was excited.

As it transpires that excitement was misplaced. 

Brothers follows Jady (Peter Dinklage) a recently released convict being blackmailed by monstrous prison guard Farful (Brendan Fraser) into pulling off a heist. To do so he recruits his reformed brother Moke (Josh Brolin), who just wants to be left to his quiet life with newly pregnant wife Abby (Taylor Paige).

There’s potential there. It might not be the most innovative of set ups, but with the talent involved, there is potential.

Unfortunately every ounce of talent and potential is wasted. Brothers is as lazy a comedy as it is possible to get. Its plot, predictable. It’s jokes, easy. It’s performances, route one. It wants emulate the Coen Brothers, but everything about it is too over the top and exaggerated to come anywhere close. 

And all of this becomes immediately apparent in the first 15 minutes. You can predict everything about the film from this.

Try it. When they’re setting up a joke, just try to guess what the punchline is going to be. If you’ve seen a handful of comedy films in your life I guarantee you, you’ll be right pretty much every time.

Comedy comes from subverting expectations, but Brothers subverts absolutely nothing. 

It does at least try to be edgy in place - one scene in particular involving an Orangutan comes to mind - but in these moments the cartoonish nature of the direction and performances blunt any edge that it might have had.

Which is surprising considering it is written by Macon Blair. Blair has form - not least in his 2018 thriller Hold the Dark - of creating films dripping with tension. None of that is present here. 

This may seem like a harsh reaction to a relatively forgettable film, and I hate to just dunk on films without finding anything good to say about it, but I’m just so very disappointed in it. I was genuinely excited for this one, there is a huge amount of talent behind it, but it squanders it all. Everyone here is doing their worst work. 

There are films that I dislike, but that I can respect for trying to do something interesting. But Brothers doesn’t do that. It doesn’t try to do anything interesting, it doesn’t take any risks. Every aspect of the film has “that’ll do” written all over it. 

And that, to me, is the worst kind of film. One devoid of ambition or passion. 

Go back and watch Palm Springs instead.