May 3, 2026
Spiritually Speaking in the Movies review 5/1/26 : “FOUR BROTHERS” featuring Mark Wahlberg as Bobby Mercer, Fionnula Flanagan as Mom Mercer and Chiwetel Ejiofor as bad-guy Victor Sweet.
The Quick Review:
If you happen upon a movie called “Four Brothers,” carefully consider what you have in your hands. It may not be a ride you want to take.
Should you see it? If you want to share the spirit of people who are going to need therapy the rest of their lives to overcome being terrorized, sure. This movie could be a catalyst for a mission to heal the broken. And everyone is vividly broken in “Four Brothers,” a slam-bang, guns blazing, encounter in a criminal world even Dick Tracy never saw.
At the core of the story, there is compassion. It’s just barely recognizable as it emerges from the depths of hearts once too hurt to heal. The brothers have wounds, not scabs. Somehow, there is a hope that life will be good again, but this tale may be too far-fetched to be convincing.
It’s a nice try, at least, to encourage the underdogs to keep on fighting as they quest for “justice.” Be fore-warned however; there is plenty of cruel violence in “Four Brothers” among evocative or reflective moments. This tale easily earns its “R” rating. I’d give it an R+.
A Deeper Look:
There are two types of murder in Four Brothers. One is “bad” murder, where sleazy, lying no-goods coldly kill whomever gets in their way, as they climb the economic ladder. The other is “good” murder,” if there is such a thing, by four, grown, adopted brothers seeking to root out those no-goods and make them pay for their cold-hearted deeds.
And pay they do. The bad guys — who are genuinely bad — are one-by-one chased, subdued, then helplessly executed without mercy, by the “good” guys, the adopted brothers, who just wanna get on with their so-called lives.
First, though, they have to take care of business. Satisfaction must be served for their tough-love adopted Mom Mercer. She was sadly shot down during a robbery while shopping for Thanksgiving dinner at a convenience store, late at night in a bad neighborhood.
Mom Mercer was the only light for these four bothers in their nether world; the only one who cared, looked over their shoulders, guiding them to live right. She never gave up on them, when the rest of the world did. And now she’s gone, cut down while trying to buy a turkey of all things
The grown, estranged brothers meet up at Mom’s home after her funeral. You can feel the cold void, the absence of spirit, as the brothers enter the only place in the world where there was once warmth, a loving greeting and unquestionable support. Extinguished. And for what?
That’s what the brothers want to know, and there-in lies the quest that unites them like never before. It’s just not right to kill a saint. Especially their saint. This lousy, dark world needs light, and the crummy so-and-so’s who take it away need to be dealt with.
The brothers, led by Bobby, vow that “they” — whoever they are — are not gonna get away with it. Bring on the cold-as-a-winter-storm violence.
But first, in a surprisingly tender and introspective scene, the brothers eat Thanksgiving turkey together as mom would have wanted them to; not in the living room on paper plates in front of the TV watching the game, but together at the dinner table, where mom used to sit at the head and smile with “her boys.”
The brothers, in their own way, silently imagine Mom talking to them individually as they eat, say, admiring their tattoos, but firmly asking them to get elbows off the table. Finally, they can’t take it, throw down their turkey legs and … lock and load to get vengeance?
No, they go out to play a pick-up-game of ice hockey, a childhood memory of “better days.” Adults, once again kids at play. Those were the days my friend, we thought they’d never end. It’s a bit of a rough pick up game, but life is tough, right? These good memories have been stolen from them now, justifying what is to come.
The entire film is shot in dead-winter in Detroit. It’s cold. Hostile. Unforgiving. A perfect setting for the story. This is a broken world, where angels are scarce. A carefully inserted wide shot underscores the absence of God when a daylight car chase goes by a lonely, dilapidated, boarded up and burned out building with a steeple…a church. The picture lingers just long enough to get the point across: No God, no peace. The Father, Son and Holy Ghost caught the last train to the coast.
The biblical “Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord,” idea is tossed out the brother’s car window. If you wanna get it done right, you gotta do it yourself. Forget cops. Even the good, among the crooked. They are bound by procedure, unlike the brothers.
Surprisingly, “Four Brothers” has more tender moments. A fountain of tears is shed for their losses as they try to get to the bottom and root out sheer evil. The genuinely good are cut down. The bad and not-so-bad, seemingly prosper. The emotional persistence of the brothers is commendable in the face of over-whelming odds. You want to see them “win,” if you can truly call it that… or at least overcome.
Hang on to those tender moments, they are few and far between, but needed to get to the end, as the brothers careen to the finale, leaving behind a wreckage of cars, bullet-ridden buildings and body bags full of bad guys. There is a particularly cold dispatching of a beaten bad guy, still alive, tossed mercilessly into a big ice-fishing hole - by a guy named “MER-CER”.
And at the end, somehow - violently - the odds are overcome. The spiritual light begins to appear in a neighborhood once racked by corruption, fear and helplessness. The winter weather finally breaks and a thaw brings tender life. A new day dawns.
Bobby finds himself domestically at the bar-b-cue, frying food for an outdoor neighborhood spring fest. He encourages the kids to go play street hockey but says, “no rough stuff.” Can you taste the irony? But Life is changing.
Yes, now there is “peace.” It’s just that getting to it was so overwhelming for the brothers, (and us as viewers) could they truly enjoy it? The film implies, “Yes.”
But somehow, I doubt it.
“Four Brothers is directed by John Singleton and also features Tyrese Gibson as Angel Mercer, Andre Benjamin as Jeremiah Mercer and Garrett Hedlund as Jack Mercer. Terrance Howard as Lt. Green, and Josh Charles as Detective Fowler.
Rate R, 1h 48m Released Aug. 12, 2005, Streaming Aug. 1, 2013. Production by Paramount Pictures and Four Brothers Films, Inc.
