Mitch Montgomery has gathered his brothers together after their mother's passing. He wants to fix up the family home after years of neglect and ready it for selling, with the proceeds split between all of them. However, while Mitch is focused on his task and is the responsible leader of the group, his brothers are less so. Still, Mitch loves his brothers and oscillates between affection and frustration in his dealings with them. But when their errant and long-absent father arrives on the scene, Mitch and his brothers are confronted with the troubles of their past, just as all hell breaks loose. Directed and written by Matt Mazany, this big-hearted, loose-limbed short comedy is essentially a character portrait of a man who has spent his life as a surrogate parent to his unruly group of brothers -- and may just be reaching his breaking point in the role. Taking place after they've lost their mother, the group gathers in the family home to fix it up -- a big undertaking that is also a potential recipe for disaster, given the rambunctious nature of the brothers. The comedy comes from the fractious yet warmly relatable group dynamic of siblings, who seem partly like a litter of puppies, partly like a wrestling team and entirely unruly. Each sibling has foibles and quirks, except for Mitch, the oldest and most responsible. He does his best to keep his brothers in line, even as adults.
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But just as he's helped one brother out of a mess, another creates a new fire to put out. It makes for a screwball dynamic for the narrative, though the perceptive storytelling also charts Mitch's growing frustration with the role he has. As Mitch tries to keep his brothers on task and in line, we feel both his frustration but also his sense of isolation. The other brothers get to have fun, while Mitch feels the weight of responsibility. Well-known comedy actor Mike Mitchell reveals nuance and complexity as the emotional anchor here, shouldering the arc of a man whose role in his family begins to wear on him. Though we're laughing at his brothers' antics, we also really feel a sense of compassion for Mitch as he tries to ignore his growing frustrations as the fixing-up process goes awry. And when their long-lost father shows up -- likely the source of the family problems to begin with -- Mitch finds his own unruly feelings bubbling over. It makes for a funny, empathetic yet shocking ending for BIG BROTHERS, one that doesn't tie neatly into a tidy, easy resolution. But it makes for a memorable one, where Mitch realizes that families are sometimes just what they are -- frayed, fractious, not easily changed. But because it won't ever resolve or change without everyone's efforts, he can maybe let go of that need to maintain control and responsibility over it all. He can just let it go, and breath a sigh of relief at the release.
