Brotherhood displays, on the surface, the story of four males who survived a camp canoe trip during the 1920s in Canada. Depicting this story, it sneaks in some ideas about fate. Sometimes, small acts of God make people’s chances of survival slimmer, like a paddle drifting away from the stranded rowers. And then there’s free will. In depicting that side of tragedy, it does the balancing act of not blaming victims of tragedy while recognizing preventable mistakes that pushed them into their tragic circumstances. But before it does both, it shows the social differences that separate its characters.

Brotherhood spends a lot of time with the younger characters who, despite small squabbles, get a long really well. This is one of the few instances where a fart joke didn’t infuriate me. Beats like that reinforce the levity that these younger characters see in their lives despite of their tragic pasts. Even moments when they break out in corny songs work, which contrast from the last song that they sing together. And then there’s the camp supervisors, war vets who try to instill conservative values into these youths.

These elders have good intentions, but the movie shows those hyper masculine values led them into the accident. The movie gets its story from an obscure real life event, which may come to its advantage. Some characters with detailed back stories don’t get to live, while others who at first only seem like fillers eventually get complexity. This is an interesting choice for writer-director Richard Bell, who aims not to easily telegraph his characters’ fates. But it seems like a waste to emotionally invest on characters only to scrap them. That’s especially true with Brotherhood‘s short running time.

The dialogue in Brotherhood would have a better had effect had Bell chosen to write with a better stricture. He starts off with a scene before the canoe trip. It then switches to scenes when they’re in the middle of the lake at night. This script falls under many that try and fail to mix timelines. The flashback scenes have capable cinematography, where older cast members like Brendan Fehr and Brendan Fletcher. The former makes his character’s veteran past interesting. I can’t say the same for everyone during the scenes depicting the nighttime disaster.

These younger characters are good as a group, but they’re difficult to tell apart during the flashbacks and especially during the accident scenes. The lighter dialogue during the flashbacks turn heavy while they’re trying to cling on to their capsized canoe. It’s understandable for these conversations to take place, to air things out as if it’s their only chance to do so. But the more logical way to behave in their situations is to make concrete actions to save themselves. It’s unfortunate that Bell chose to over-dramatize something as simple as the event it’s based on.

Brotherhood premieres on December 6 at the Yonge and Dundas branch of Cineplex Cinemas. For more information on the film go to https://www.brotherhood1926.com/.