Brother's Keeper

0.cached.png

By Newsweek Editors

See more of our trusted coverage when you search.Prefer Newsweek on Googleto see more of our trusted coverage when you search.

Sean Penn has never bothered to ingratiate, either as an actor or a celebrity. Nor does he in his newfound role as writer/director. The Indian Runner, his gritty, fitfully powerful study of two Nebraska brothers in the late '60s-a settled Nebraska cop (David Morse) and the violent, destructive Vietnam vet (Viggo Mortensen) he tries to save-demands respect for its unfashionable immersion in character, its moody solemnity, its Cassavetes-like faith in the revelatory power of an actor's nuance. Penn gives his two strong leads a lot of rope and at times they lapse into whispery actorishness. Patricia Arquette is touching as Mortensen's childlike girlfriend, Valeria Golina is the cop's Mexican wife, and Charles Bronson and Sandy Dennis play the brothers' crushed parents. After its compelling first hour, "The Indian Runner" gets self-indulgent and repetitive. But Penn has the gifts of a real filmmaker-an eye, an ear and a heart. You can sense that he's grappling with his own demons in this anguished story of a collision between brutishness and responsibility. Whatever its flaws, this one comes from the gut.

Read More on News