Saturday 16 February 2013

Mini-Review: The Brothers (1947)

From http://www.iceposter.com/thumbs/MOV_83241ce2_b.jpg


Dir. David MacDonald
UK

A young woman (Patricia Roc) is sent to a family, consisting of a father and two sons, to be their maid and housekeeper, only for the rivalry with another clan and the older brother’s (Duncan Macrae) obsession with her to completely effect the lives of everyone involved. Set in Scotland in 1900, it evokes the fog covered hills of the land immenselt, a closed-in community depicted rich in culture and adding layers to the film; it is unfortunate the print the UK DVD distributor Park Circus used suggests that a less-than-pristine version of this British film is all that is left. Sadly the film’s narrative – which includes clan rivalries, the bootlegging of whiskey, and strained relationships of brotherly and romantic love – feels less than fully formed in less than ninety minutes and becomes stale melodrama.

The Brothers has a lot to potentially like, but there is aspects, that appear in British cinema, which undermine its quality. It has a charm, a tone of down-to-earth bluntness (and vulgarity) which is a great virtue of my country’s cinema. The unique touches of the setting, the use of Gaelic (?) words in the characters’ speak, and how the hatred between two clans is officially settled through a ritualistic act of insulting the other family as poetically damning as possible, before going to a challenge involving rowing boats, adds character that gives the film personality beyond a narrative. That also includes a bizarre but gruesome practice by the characters involving rope and a single silver fish. Sadly, as is a great problem with British cinema, is that it feels stilted especially in the narrative and acting at times. With a deep history to work from, a nationalistic streak of matter of factness (and black humour) and a visual beauty to our isles’ landscape that shine in great films, the narrative itself doesn’t life up the weight of these qualities as well as it should, and for the great acting in the film there are also some that feel lacking in dramatic weight and somewhat cold consider the drama of the story. This sounds like a cruel view of The Brothers, but when a film like it is merely alright, ok, not great, this does come to mind and nags at it.

From https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhjADIK-H9Z55kMQXKQwm_zhhMmhW3CHWiSdcoC4KTpSUdfeQjNW_KT_oNv0vnbEPJM6_Hq7UbetGP0ap8X21LvBNrd2K3J7vqnlZyQrfHh_xURi7jj2W0Wvs-nY7nzGbmaTYlZeGDsO9c/s1600/The+Brothers.jpg

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