My Brother's Keeper is a dramatic, feel-good story about two identical twins, Lou and Eric, and the sacrifices they were willing to make for each other to realize their dreams. The movie, produced in 2004, is an independent film that won multiple awards, "Gold Special Jury Award" from the Houston, Texas Film Festival and "Best of the Festival" from the Lexington, Virginia Film Festival. You might recognize the film's leading star Aaron Ashmore. His face can be seen in X-Men, X2: X-Men United, and X-Men: The Last Stand, although it is not actually Aaron's face but his identical twin Shawn. Aaron has a reoccurring role in the recent popular crime/mystery drama Veronica Mars. As a film, My Brother's Keeper offers an engaging drama with some solid acting performances.

The story begins in the final year of Lou and Eric's high school career, in the midst of a rowing championship that they lose to the rich kids Victor (Steve Byers) and Carl (Matt Murray) from a near by town. The loss of the match was devastating for Lou, because rowing was more or less his life. In terms of the future, Lou does not have any plans or goals. Besides rowing, he just wants to party and have fun. Despite Eric is his identical twin, the two are mentally very different. Eric wants to go to the upscale college Oakridge and be a business major. Academics are his strong point.

After the loss of the rowing match, Lou took it upon himself to spend the evening getting hammered with his buddy Dave (Christian Potenza). The following morning Lou came stumbling home and threw up in the yard. Of course, it happened when a representative from Oakridge had come to interview Eric. To make matters worse, no one told the interviewer Eric had an identical twin. Mistaking Eric for Lou, Eric's chances to get into Oakridge slimmed, but he still kept his head up high in the hopes he would get in.

The catch is that a rowing scout for Oakridge noticed Lou during the championship and offered him a full scholarship contingent on his performance on Oakridge's rowing team. While one would think the offer would be good news, Lou reacts with anger when he finds out. His first thought is about Eric and what about him? He is the one who really wants to go to Oakridge. Lou's solution is to pretend that the scout mistook him for Eric, and he puts the good Coach McCoy (Dave Nichols) in a pickle. The two lie to the recruiter and convince him Eric is the rower he saw. This single act marks the huge sacrifice Lou was willing to make for his best friend and brother.

With Eric heading off to school at Oakridge, Lou is not left with many options. He takes a job at the factory his father worked at and he continues to make sacrifices for his brother that come at a price. In return for the selfless acts, which Lou initially kept secret, he is berated for not having any direction by his girlfriend Jane (Lesley Faulkner) and mother Helen (Alberta Watson). Lou finds there is more to life than just trying to make his brother's dreams come true, which lead him to finding himself.

At Oakridge, Eric is in a completely different world. Surrounded by the rich and the beautiful, he wants to fit in and be like everyone else. Of course, not having any money makes it difficult to fit in with the rich kids and impress girls like Tayna (Mandy Schaffer). Eric also has problems with some of his new teammates. Victor and Carl are there and they give Eric a tough time. Adding to the fire is Larry Dawson (Jonathan Whittaker) a bad coach who only wants to win and he will do whatever it takes, including giving his kids steroids.

What works for the story is the leading actor Aaron Ashmore. Ashmore does a terrific job handling his roles as both the party-going, carefree brother and the self-conscious, rule-following brother. The two roles are very different and he is able to project their personalities and characters as two distinct individuals without making it feel fake. Christian Potenza is also good as a supporting character. He provides a somewhat goofy and likeable guy. The other roles are not nearly as convincing. For instance, the bad guys played by Byers, Murray, and Whittaker are not the best. Their characters feel like they are being pushed too much into very limited roles. Despite a few bad apples, the cast does a pretty good job with their roles.

As for the story, I did not think it was the most interesting movie I have watched, but I did not want to turn it off either. As I said, some of the acting is great, and it helped keep my interest. The story itself gets a little hokey sometimes, with things like the girlfriend who gets mad at Eric because he refuses to take steroids, which his coach gave him, seems ridiculous.

Overall, My Brother's Keeper fairs well. The story, while it has a few limitations, is a compelling tale that is furthered by a great performance from its leading actor Aaron Ashmore. I believe this drama is a solid production that is worth looking into. It is, however, not one of those movies I could imagine watching again and again. I enjoyed it, but not that much.

The DVD

Video:
The movie is presented in letterbox format (non-anamorphic 1.85:1 ratio widescreen with black bars in a full frame transfer). The picture is relatively good looking with minimal color flaws, but there are distinct compression distortions noticeable throughout the feature.

Audio:
The audio is given in English 2.0 channel stereo sound. The track is dialogue driven and it is audible throughout the presentation.

Extras:
My Brother's Keeper comes with a number of extras. They include "Original Trailer", the theatrical trailer, "Animatic Storyboard of Selected Scenes", a two minute clip of animated storyboard of the 3D character models rowing, "Original Stage Play Footage", three and a half minutes of degraded VHS-quality of footage from a stage play, "Interview with Director and Producer", twenty-one minutes with Jordan Barker and Jeff Deverett talking about the movie, characters, and so on, "Music Video from THE PYLONS", a music video from the Pylons, and "Twinsburg Special Promotional Screening", less than four minutes with Deverett guest starring a local cable show. While there are several extras, most tend to be lackluster. The only real item of interest is the interview with Deverett and Barker.

Final Thoughts:
My Brother's Keeper is a good drama about two brothers and the sacrifices they are willing to make for each other. The story is feel-good and offers a solid performance from its leading actor Aaron Ashmore. The movie makes for a compelling drama that will keep your interest. In the end, you will want to check out My Brother's Keeper. However, despite the praise I give this movie, I am giving it a rent it recommendation because I believe it has low replay value. It is good, but not that good.