Brothers is a film about emotional trauma, retribution, and good ol' family rivalry. While the basic concept of a woman sleeping with two brothers has been seen over and over on shows like Jerry Springer, the concept here is a bit different. Natalie Portman portrays a loving wife who finds out that her husband (Tobey Maguire) was killed in Afghanistan. Her brother-in-law (Jake Gyllenhaal) is the black-sheep of the family but finally steps up to the plate in this time of grieving, and winds up winning the grieving widow's affection.

The film has one big twist, but it comes as no surprise since the "shocker" is shown in every preview of the movie. When it's discovered that the husband actually wasn't killed in Afghanistan, he comes back and torments the family because his wife "cheated" on him. Plus, Tobey is seriously stressing from some PTSD and some other imbalances.

Honestly, the big surprise isn't that Jake and Natalie make two pigs in a blanket; no, the big shocker is that the young kids seem to know about it in great detail. And unfortunately Tobey never seems to come to the realization that at least he's alive and still married to Natalie Portman. Okay, his brother got her high and they did the ol' flim-flam and a flapjack, but at the end of the day, he's still married to Natalie Portman. Life can't be that bad.

Fearless Prediction: The husband is killed at the end of the film and the widow (this time for real) winds up with the brother (who is now no longer the black sheep).

Predictive Score: 3 out of 5

Opens: 12/3/09

Rating: R

Note: Predictive score is based upon how good we feel the movie will be. The Fearless Prediction is our prediction on what will happen in the movie, but not necessarily what will occur.