Alliance Films releases its timely war drama Brothers on 214 screens this weekend, while Everybody’s Fine gets an unusually modest rollout via Maple Pictures.

The holiday comedy, featuring Robert De Niro as a widower who sets off on a road trip to reunite with his adult children, bows here on just 65 screens, while U.S. distributor Miramax is banking on more robust box office, releasing it on 2,200.

Brothers, arriving amid renewed debate about the conflict in Afghanistan, stars Tobey Maguire as a Marine who goes missing in action while his wife (Natalie Portman) finds comfort in his brother (Jake Gyllenhaal). It is directed by Jim Sheridan (The Boxer, In America).

The week’s other wide release is Columbia’s heist actioner Armored, starring Matt Dillon and Laurence Fishburne, on nearly 2,000 screens.

Also opening Friday:

• Maple Pictures has the ensemble drama The Private Lives of Pippa Lee, featuring Robin Wright Penn and Keanu Reeves, playing at Toronto’s Cumberland and AMC Forum, and Vancouver’s Granville. The film bowed at the Toronto International Film Festival earlier this year.

• John Woo’s epic Red Cliff, about the battle that heralded the end of China’s Han Dynasty, opens on three screens in Toronto and two in Vancouver via E1 Entertainment.

• Canuck writer/director Bill Keenan’s comedy Eating Buccaneers, about four ad execs and a client who crash-land in northern Ontario, expands to Vancouver after a successful run in Toronto through KinoSmith. The film stars Peter Keleghan, Leah Pinsent and Shannon Beckner.

• White Pine Pictures and Union Pictures are launching a series of special screenings for the documentary Genius Within: The Inner Life of Glenn Gould, playing at Toronto’s rep house The Royal until Dec. 8. The film about the piano virtuoso, directed by Peter Raymont, will eventually head to other cities including Vancouver, Calgary, Edmonton and Montreal.

• Cineplex will begin selling advance tickets for James Cameron’s buzzed-about 3D film Avatar on Friday. The film opens on Dec. 18.