Do you like machine guns? Do you like Jesus? Then you’ll love Machine Gu- oh, wait. That might not actually be enough to close the deal. Let’s try again: do you like the flagrant deification of bikers with hearts of gold? Do you like Gerard Butler being utterly dull as usual? Do you like the White Messiah fable? Then you’ll love Machine Gun Preacher! That’s more like it.

Turns out the hope we held out for Brothers wasn’t unwarranted. This tragic portrait of the effects of war on young lives brims with real emotion and powerhouse performances from its lead actors, particularly Tobey Maguire and Natalie Portman. For the most part, despite the potential for cheese in its subject matter (man goes off to war, brother steps in to fill his shoes on the home front, man turns out not to be dead and returns to awkward situation in family), the narrative avoids cliche and leaves you with a real, confronting sense of heartbreak. It’s a harrowing film experience that hits you right in the guts, and it could well be the resurrection of Maguire’s post-Peter Parker career.