Just out of prison after serving time for armed robbery, ne'er-do-well Jannik (Kaas) is picked up by his brother Michael (Thomsen), a Danish major and upstanding family man. Michael urges Jannik to apologize to the bank teller he terrorized; Jannik refuses; and so begins Brothers, a small and well-focused feature that spins the brothers' lives in opposite directions.
Michael heads off to Afghanistan, leaving behind his wife, Sarah (Nielsen) and two daughters, while Jannik settles into being a jobless drunk. But after Michael is gunned down and presumed dead, Jannik begins to straighten out his life and become a surrogate dad to Michael's kids and a potential new mate for Sarah. But it turns out Michael is still alive, stuck in a concentration camp, but his ticket home comes only after a moral transgression that proves too much for him to cope with.
Susanne Bier directs with jittery digital cameras and keeps her frame focused on the family as it unravels. She gets fine performances from Kaas and especially Thomsen, who must shoulder the moral weight of the movie. Nielsen, who has lately popped up as the female sidekick in a handful of regrettable action thrillers (Basic and The Hunted) reminds us that she possess ample clarity and good sense on screen.
The film's denouement is not entirely satisfying, and the title is a bit of a misnomer; Bier does not delve that deeply into the complex interplay between brothers. Instead, she lands her most effective blows dramatizing the way that guilt eats away at a good man.