Review of Two Brothers

"Two Brothers" opens with a screen stating: "Over the course of a year, first-time filmmaker Richard Bell created a movie with four actors, one editor, a composer and no crew. His costs were $545.00 Cdn." Well... nothing like patting yourself on the back before the movie even begins. Despite a compelling and very talented cast, I spent most of the movie's 60 minute run time laughing at what wasn't intended to be funny. I felt like I was watching an episode of Degrassi Junior High... like one long episode of Degrassi in black and white about death, love, sex, alcoholism, homosexuality, money, aids, child abuse, spousal abuse and more. When you try to cram all that into 60 minutes you render these topics trite. With dialogue like "Homosexuals are, like, my favorite kind of people," and "For the first time in my life I really have myself," you can't help but laugh. But it isn't all unintended laughs there's also moments of severe irritation - the character of Tobie has an opening monologue so irritating that I wanted to hold an electric sander to her face. Luckily the talented actress who played Tobie had some scenes of some substance before the whole thing was over... and when it was (finally) over they decided to close with a passage from the Bible. Again - unintentional laughs. Maybe that screen at the beginning wasn't bragging.... maybe it was an apology.

But....

Included on the DVD are two short films by writer/director Lawrence Ferber. The first "Cruise Control" runs only 6 minutes but establishes so much about character and the theme... and is pretty funny. The second "Birthday Time," runs 19 minutes and makes the whole DVD worth every penny you pay for it. So in just 25 minutes total (approx.) Lawrence Ferber firmly establishes himself as a a great talent with an insightful, honest voice that makes you want to see more.