I’m an American, from America; I’ve lived here all my life.  Even so, it is sometimes amazing to me as to what other Americans think or do.  A good case in point is the 2009 release of Brothers, a 2009 remake of the 2004 Danish Brødre.  Yes, we’re talking about a remake of a movie made five years prior.

The long and the short is that there is absolutely no reason to watch the American version; do yourself a favor and go for the original, 2004 version from Denmark.  Why?  The story and plots are almost exactly the same; albeit a bit more watered down in the American version.  Admittedly, the USA does introduce a certain amount of comedy, in that the child actors beat out the long-standing Hollywood names.  Additionally, the DVD feature on the American 2009 release also has a twelve minute piece on why they bothered to remake the movie.  My personal favorite was that they had to remake the movie  because not enough Americans had watched the original; to say nothing of the power of putting any sort of weight towards redistribution, re-release, etc.

With all that said, the movie is certainly very powerful.  Susan Bier deserves an incredible amount of credit for her work on the story, and for her vision in the execution of its telling.