“Please, oh please, give me some Oscar nominations.”

The above phrase could easily be the tag line for the film “Brothers.” Yet another in the long line of Hollywood remakes, which have become popular with the new millennium. This movie was first a book, then a movie, and now a movie again with bigger actors. The problem with remaking a movie lies with the possibility of not living up to the original.

To try to get the job done, “Brothers” provides a solid cast. Jake Gyllenhaal flexes his acting muscles as another character with a screwed-up life seeking to find his way.

Natalie Portman proves her acting talent again, playing a mother of two who is struggling to deal with tragedy.

Tobey Maguire is given the opportunity to make up for the abysmal “Spider-Man 3,” and succeeds with flying colors. Even the child actors, Bailee Madison and Taylor Geare, do really well.

With remarks like that, how could this movie not make the grade? Well, it gets high marks, but it isn’t an instant classic.

Not a moment is wasted in building the all-too-recognizable world the characters live in. A soldier, Maguire, goes to Afghanistan to fight in the war, leaving his wife and children to pray for his safe and expedient return.

When his helicopter is shot down, he is presumed dead, prompting brother and black sheep of the family, Gyllenhaal, to step in and try to help the family and make up for his previously criminal ways.

The downside is with the rest of the characters and the setting. This is supposed to be a movie people can feel. The audience members are supposed to be able to place themselves in the shoes of these characters to understand the sorrow and longing portrayed.

Well, except for the empty shell-ness of Maguire when he turns out not to be dead and returns home, angry and broken like a Vietnam vet who was fortunate enough to survive, yet unfortunate enough to have lived through the horrors offered to him at the hands of the enemy.

The problem is that you don’t always feel it. I could understand where they were coming from, and I could comprehend why events unfolded the way they did.

What I couldn’t get, however, was the atmosphere. When Hollywood makes a movie, it tends to make it look a little too “real.”

The colors are a little too perfect, the costumes are a little too good, and the words can be just too perfect.

“But wait,” you say. “Isn’t Hollywood supposed to make things great like that? Isn’t that perfection what audiences crave from films?”

Yes and no.

Yes, it is supposed to look good. Yes, the dialogue should be well-written.

Now for the “no.” From the real people I’ve met in life, the majority don’t tend to be quite the beautiful and talented figures Gyllenhaal and Portman are. Casting them made the characters seem too much better than normal people; the way they walked, talked and interacted with the setting in the world they were a part of was too good. They were too good. They were still amazing, however, so don’t think this is a reason not to watch the film.

The Taliban characters were not, however, very good. They were poorly written — they may as well have been screaming, “Look at us! We’ve got beards and yell a lot!” and clearly that’ is exactly how they all act, all the time. The rest of the family, people and friends, also just didn’t do it for me. Maybe they were good, but they were overshadowed by the main stars’ awesomeness. Regardless, it bothered me.

The way the movie is filmed also took away from “Brothers” being a completely top-notch flick.

It looks too nice. Too fluid. I want some shakier movement with jerky camera work to make me feel like I’m in the emotionally driven scenes.

Again, this isn’t necessarily a bad thing.

The plot itself is good, but I found myself straying. I became too wrapped up in the emotions the characters gave off. Maybe this was the intention, but I’m fairly certain the story is supposed to be one of the big draws, along with the stellar casting.

Maguire, luckily, really saved the day, and in a much cooler way than he ever did as Spidey.

I did not know he could play a soldier with post-traumatic stress disorder so well. I believed him the entire time because he looked so real.

I can’t explain it any better. All I can say is go see him for yourself.

The story is OK, the scenes are fine, but the acting demonstrates what actors are supposed to be able to do.

All nit-picking aside, the movie is good, and odds are – unless you’re a an armchair film critic like myself – you’ll be absorbed by “Brothers” and its well-crafted bid for coming Oscar nominations.

It’s two hours you’ll be happy you spent sitting in a theater.

– Gabriel Stoffa is a senior in political science and communication studies from Ottumwa