March 22–29, 2001

movie shorts

The Brothers

Writer-director Gary Hardwick’s first feature follows four commitment-phobic friends — Morris Chestnut, Shemar Moore, D.L. Hughley, and Bill Bellamy — as they come to terms with the crisis of Moore’s impending wedding. The fact that The Brothers opens with Chestnut discussing his relationship troubles with his shrink (Vanessa Bell Calloway) suggests its strategy to differentiate itself from its most obvious generic predecessors (The Best Man and The Wood), which is to delve into its protagonists’ personal and familial histories in order to discover why they’re so afraid of women (not to give anything away, but it turns out that they’ve learned their bad behaviors). Chestnut is considering settling down with new girlfriend Gabrielle Union, Bellamy is a confirmed bachelor, and Hughley is married to Tamala Jones, but fretful that she won’t give him head (and their exchanges over this issue are most definitely comic, particularly in the final credits outtakes). The guys shoot hoops, reveal their chiseled abs and do some mighty trash-talking (check the Amistad reference). But it may be Chestnut’s nightmares about a woman in a wedding dress pointing a gun at him that take this film to another level, namely, male melodrama that borders on Ally McBealism. The Brothers is clever, entertaining and unsurprising.

—Cindy Fuchs

Click here to see the trailer!