Parents' Guide to Brothers

This caper comedy relies on a well-worn story—all the way down to the "one last job and I'm out" cliché—but the excellent cast goes all in on their oversized performances, and it's a lot of fun. Dinklage and Brolin really seem like brothers, as if they developed some invisible shorthand while communicating with one another. Dinklage gives a masterful performance as a lovable, lying scoundrel; Brolin carries the weight of the world on his shoulders; and Oscar-winner Fraser is off the rails as Officer Farful, battling his inferiority complex with everything he has. (Stay tuned for the late, great M. Emmet Walsh as his father, Judge Farful.) Eight-time Oscar nominee Glenn Close is wild-eyed as the boys' backstabbing mother. And Marisa Tomei, in an uncredited appearance, is hilarious as a hippie named Bethesda who has something Jady needs to pull off the job. (At least writers Etan Cohen and Macon Blair put some thought into the characters' names!) It's too bad that Brothers had to resort to lazy humor involving an orangutan and plot twists involving lies and slip-ups ("I never told you that!"), but the great cast still makes it worth a look.