Today’s quick review: Four Brothers. Four adopted brothers (Mark Wahlberg, Tyrese Gibson, Andre Benjamin, and Garrett Hedlund) return to Detroit when their saintly mother (Fionnula Flanagan) is gunned down during a robbery. The brothers have a reputation as troublemakers and were the worst of the foster care system, but their strong sense of family imbued in them by their mother has kept them from throwing away their lives completely. When they look into their mother’s murder, they find that there was more to it than just a robbery gone wrong. Together they set out to find who would kill a kindly old woman and exact their revenge.
Four Brothers is a movie about family and revenge. Much like The Boondock Saints, a set of brothers take the law into their own hands, cutting a swath through the underworld using amateur tactics. Unlike The Boondock Saints, Four Brothers features a much more personal, limited crusade that focuses on revenge rather than vigilantism. The two movies also take different stylistic directions from their similar premises: where The Boondock Saints is lower-budget and more stylized, Four Brothers is more polished but less memorable.
The relationship between the brothers is the source of most of the movie’s character. The brothers all have unique personalities, and they rib each other mercilessly. One message is conveyed clearly: their family has its problems, but their good hearts make them a ray of hope in the crime-ridden neighborhoods where they grew up. The plot progression is also quite solid. After a slow, familial start, the action picks up as the brothers hunt down their mother’s killer. The pacing is solid, and their investigation has several satisfying twists along the way.
How much you will like the movie depends on how much you like the characters. The brothers individually are not all that likable, but they all have their moments, and their family is greater than the sum of their parts. While their motives are good, their methods are dubious: the brothers take a direct approach to their inquiries, using intimidation tactics to extract the information they want. Events make it clear that the brothers have good hearts, but if you prefer clear-cut heroes, look elsewhere. Overall, Four Brothers is worth a watch if you’re looking for a crime film with a good progression, realistic action, and a strong sense of family. Skip it if you’re looking for more action, more heroic heroes, or a great movie rather than a good one.
6.9 out of 10 on IMDB. I give it a 7.0 for a good mix of elements that’s nothing too special.