Four
Brothers marks the return of John Singleton who appears to be enjoying a pleasant
season as a producer thanks to his discovery of Craig Brewer’s excellent
Hustle and Flow. His newest film doesn’t rank among his best, but as an attempt
at commercial film making it’s a step up from his re-take on Shaft a few
years ago.
Four
Brothers is a tale of revenge set in a crime infested Detroit. Bobby (Mark Wahlberg),
Angel (Tyrese Gibson), Jeremiah (Andre Benjamin), and Jack (Garrett Hedlund) are
brothers who re-unite in their old stomping ground when the woman (played by Fionnula
Flanagan) who took them in as youngsters is murdered in a gang slaying. Being
the no-nonsense, loose cannon of an individual Bobby is, he talks his brothers
into assisting him in tracking down those who killed their mom, even though the
siblings - from vastly different backgrounds - have been repeatedly warned by
police investigators (played by Terrence Howard and Josh Charles) to steer clear
of the situation. Upon digging into the nasty underbelly of Detroit, the four
brothers are lead to nasty gangster Victor Sweet (gleefully played by an excellent
Chiwetel Ejiofor) who may or may not be behind the hit that cost them their mother.
Four
Brothers is essentially an urban western, no surprise given that the western is
a genre close to Singleton’s heart. This movie is quite simply a tale of
good guys vs. bad guys, only the good guys here also happen to be bad guys.
The
performances are mostly solid. I really like Andre Benjamin (of hip hop outfit
Outkast) a lot. He’s extremely charismatic and proves to have dramatic chops
to boot. Tyrese Gibson is also a commanding screen presence as he already proved
in Singelton’s Baby Boy. Garrett Hedlund is effective as a psychologically
scarred musician who proves to be the group’s vulnerable center. Mark Wahlberg
is actually the weakest of the team. He excels as the no nonsense bad ass, slinging
playful insults at those around him, but I didn’t buy into any of his emotional
scenes. They didn’t ring true. The sight of this tough, streetwise punk crying,
felt like a cheap ploy to lend sympathy to the character and it didn’t fly,
and what’s more, Wahlberg doesn’t sell it.
Terrence
Howard (who recently lit up the screen in Crash and Hustle and Flow) is outstanding
as a decent cop walking that fine line. He wants to uphold the law, but by the
same token he listens to those on the street, even the thugs. Chiwetel Ejiofor
is spectacularly perfect as the villainous Victor Sweet. I’ve been a huge
fan of this actor since I saw him in Stephen Frears’ underrated Dirty Pretty
Things and he continues to amaze me with each passing performance. Here, he plays
a bigger than life gangster, and watching him belittle his crew throughout the
movie, was an absolute scream. This is a brand of bad I don’t recall ever
seeing before.
Singleton’s
direction is slightly inconsistent. The film has an energy and swagger about it
to be sure. It’s also well shot, perfectly capturing the gritty sites and
sounds of Detroit. Sadly though, the tone is all over the map. At it’s heart,
Four Brothers is a tale of revenge, but the film is undercut by strange, light
hearted humor and over the top situations that don’t always mesh. Take for
instance a sequence in which a pissed off, gun-weilding Bobby waltzes out onto
the court during a high school basketball game. His position is to find an apparent
witness who saw the slaying that took the life of his mother Evelyn. Many would
argue that Bobby’s approach perfectly suits his no nonsense nature, but I
believe someone who’d been raised in the tough streets of Detroit would know
better. This just seemed like foolish conceit to me. In fact, there are several
times in the picture when these brothers waltz into public places showing their
faces without a care in the world. In real life, these guys would have been popped
in the first reel. And don’t get me started on the cheesy sequences in which
the brothers have visions of a “speaking-words-of-wisdom Evelyn. Singleton
should have let that be. Equally sloppy (and just plain offensive) is a stupid
subplot involving Angel’s busy body Latino girlfriend. Very dumb and virtually
unnecessary. Four Brothers would have profitted from some no-nonsense editing.
I
suppose the weakest link in Four Brothers is the screenplay. There are just too
many things that don’t add up. I had a hard time with some of the characterzations.
We as an audience are supposed to believe that Evelyn had a major impact on these
main characters when they were younger, but nothing these brothers go on to do
(at least in the case of Bobby and Angel) supports the theory of her strong moral
influence. If these guys are supposed to be the best of the lot, then I’d
hate to see how they would have turned out had Evelyn not been in their lives.
And if Howard’s Lt. Green is so certain that the brothers are going to take
the law into their own hands, then why didn’t he have officers following
them around the moment Bobby got to town? I guess I don’t have to tell you
why - but had this been written with a little more finesse, the whole story would
have been a lot less clumsy.
Still
though, Four Brothers has it’s moments. In particular, I love the last half
hour of the movie in which the brothers come ever so closer to achieving their
goal. The climax of the film is very entertaining and I must admit, there is a
little twist that I didn’t see coming. Furthermore, the cast build a nice
rapport, and that more than anything else makes the movie worth the price of admission.
I
still prefer the profound Singleton of Boyz in the Hood and Poetic Justice to
the Singelton of 2 Fast 2 Furious fame (I also prefer that he write his own screenplays),
but Four Brothers still has an energy about it that makes it worth recommending.
Whatever you do, however, don’t choose this one over Hustle and Flow.
