Four Brothers

A throwback to the Western and to revenge thrillers of the 70’s, Four Brothers is about the Mercer Brothers, four adopted sons, now adults, two black, two white, who are reunited by the shocking and seemingly motiveless killing of their mother in a corner grocery store. It follows their mourning, how they cope without their mother, and the emotions they go through, shock, sadness, anger and a desire for revenge on the perpetrators.

Of the brothers, you’ve got demonstrative headstrong Bobby (a good solid performance from Mark Wahlberg), burly and quietly devious ladies’ man Angel (Singleton favourite Tyrese Gibson), settled young man trying to get into business Jeremiah (Andre Benjamin) and young wild rocker Jack (Garrett Hedlund). Their detective quest to find and get even with their mother’s killer or killers is the heart of the film and for the large part you’re aware of the baddie in the film, namely vicious local influential hoodlum Victor Sweet (played well by Chiwetel Ejiofor) so its just a question of working out how Victor could possibly be linked to a quiet middle-aged woman’s abrupt murder in a grocers.

Its not exactly original as a film – you feel you’ve been on this retribution trail before – but it also creditably resists for the large part, a need to resort to gratuitous bouts of violence which is to its credit. It’s believable throughout, Singleton involves us in much of the detective work to track down the killers and includes a decent car chase in the snow and an impressive shootout sequence. Its more of a boy’s own adventure since its about men, revenge and guns, but interestingly it also has a heart and a warmth to it, largely the result of the influence that the mother used to have on her adopted sons.

Matt Arnoldi