JC

So I went to see “Four Brothers” to (a) bond with my dad and brothers who love these crazy killing-type movies and (b) to fulfill my duty to MMW. As you know, I was a little concerned about what the movie would be like…potentially just a flick that said: “Oh my goodness — look at how crazy transracial adoptees turn out! All violent and out of control!” And were my fears confirmed?

Um yea. A bit. I mean, there were several references to how they were troubled kids and “But of course this is how they would turn out.” On the flipside, the white adoptive mom was predictably portrayed as a saint for taking them all in. Unfortunately, even with her stellar nurturing, the Mercer boys still turned out to be screw-ups in some way. But…they know how to handle their business, of course. They decide to take the law into their own hands because the crooked cops of Detroit don’t seem to be handling the case the way they would like them to.

What ensues is a killing spree that is slightly justified because the bad guys (mostly) get it. But it was unsettling to me, nevertheless. But that’s a whole different issue. I don’t like watching violence so much. BUT what I did like was the love and seemingly natural affection between the brothers. There were a couple of moments where dumbfounded strangers couldn’t understand how they would be brothers, but it was all handled in a matter-of-fact way by the brothers themselves….basically, “Yea, we’re brothers, and…?” But they weren’t totally oblivious either. There were definitely some wise-cracks…Garret Hedlund’s character, Jack, was referred to as “Cracker Jack” by his brothers. So, they definitely recognized their differences in race — they recognized that Jack was white — but it didn’t have any impact on how much they cared for one another. That was nice to see. And it wasn’t forced either.

Otherwise, unfortunately, I do think that the troubled transracial adoptee or more generally, the troubled adoptee depiction was strengthened by this film. So my expectations were met!