The Brothers Grimm
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Movie Reviews of The Brothers Grimm
Movie Review: Not Terry Gilliam's best but still enchanting and fun
Summary: 4 Stars
I was looking forward to this film the second I heard about it since I'm a Terry Gilliam (Time Bandits, Brazil, 12 Monkeys) fan. I chickened out of seeing it in theatres since their was so many bad reviews. Now that I've seen it, I'm glad I did because it's really not that bad. It's not as good as a lot of Gilliam's other films but it's still a fun movie. I have an active imagination, so a movie like this is a dream come true to me. It takes a whole bunch of fairy tales and turns it into one enchanting horror/fantasy. It's sort of how Van Helsing takes all the classic monsters and puts them in one movie.
Matt Damon and Heath Ledger star as two brothers who fake battles with friends dressed up like monsters just to make some money. Soon though, they find themselves up against the real thing. They are sent on a mission to rescue captured children. Not just any children though, most of them you may recognize from classic stories such as Little Red Riding Hood. Ledger is the driving force of the movie. He believes in magic and happy endings and his brother played by Damon, just thinks he's an idiot. When their mom was sick when they were little, he sells the cow for magic beans instead of money that would pay for her doctor. Before he can plant the beans, Damon knocks them out of his hands and calls him an idiot. So when they're older, Damon still holds that against him. Damon trys hard and is good here but surprisingly Ledger steals the show. Ledger had a great year, he showed the entire year that he's not just a pretty face but also an excellent actor. He does that here as well. He'll probably even be nominated for an oscar this year and he deserves it.
The movie is a little mean spirited with how each child is taken and it's sort of disturbing. It could turn-off some viewers. Plus the film doesn't know if it's a comedy, fantasy or horror film. So that can make it a bit of a mess.The violence is a little too graphic and mean to be funny. The kid being swallowed by a horse in one scene for instance, is just creepy. Still though, it is pretty creative. The whole film is creative and that's what I like about it. I respect all the work and thought that goes into a film like this. That's why unlike some people, I just don't give out one star or even 2 unless the film is just too horrible to sit through. In that case I don't think the film is even worth writing about. After seeing the Brothers Grimm though, I couldn't wait to write a review for it. It's a little clunky with how it's put together but it's still a fun movie. Plus if you could sit through Van Helsing and actually like it, then you should love this. This is a Terry Gilliam film we're talking about here...not a Stephen Sommers film after all.
Movie Review: Welcome back Terry Gilliam
Summary: 4 Stars
Matt Damon and Heath Ledger as the Brothers of the title, look like they really enjoyed themselves making this movie, and whereas that's a good thing, it does take away from some of the picture. This is the first movie that Terry Gilliam has done since Fear & Loathing in Las Vegas (1998) and is a return to some of the more fantastical elements of his imagination, and directing skills. Most of his movies have either been disastrous, or remain cult classics with his fans, and hopefully this will be a welcome return to the big screen, and the box office.
The story is an interesting twist on the famous fairytale authors, suggesting that the Brothers fed on the fears and superstitions of local peasants back in the 1800 and something's, by showing up and ridding the folks from demons, witches and the like with their own magic and exorcisms. The fact that they provided the "false" spirits in the first place through inventive (for the time) magic shows and props, was just incidental to the fact that they were heroes making an honest living. All seems well until the arrival of Jonathan Pryce as a warring French General in the region of occupied Germany where the brothers are working, who arrests them for being charlatans, and makes them a mafia style offer. They can either stay and be tortured to death by his henchman Cavaldi (brilliantly comic performance by Peter Stormare, piled high with pathos) or investigate the disappearance of all the young girls at a nearby town, on the edge of an enchanted wood. Pryce believes that someone with a similar MO to the Grimms is up to no good, as do the Grimms themselves, until they arrive, and actually see things that are more than hard to explain.
The banter between Damon and Ledger is great, Ledger being the younger more imaginative sibling who makes notes on all their travels (hinted at being the famous fairytale bible) and Damon more rational and grounded. It will of course take a combination of them both, and the local knowledge of the fetching Lena Headey as Angelika to solve the mystery.
I never felt like this was a big budget picture, the locations are fairly grim themselves, with rain filled muddy streets in small villages, and a forest made on a sound stage, but the overall effect was a real treat. Gilliam injects enough "magic" into the picture without being way way "out there" as you felt in movies like The Fisher King, and Baron Munchausen, and supports the maxim, that less is more.
I won't spoil the story; it's inventive, funny, a little spooky in places for younger viewers, and cleverly laced with many references to the many and varied much loved tales of the famous authors. Go see for yourself, chances are you'll have fun. Enjoy!
Movie Review: Forget the nightmarish stories - it's an enjoyable fantasy romp
Summary: 4 Stars
It's tempting to imagine that the overwhelmingly negative reaction to Terry Gilliam's The Brothers Grimm was down to Harvey Scissorhands' reputation. After all, hadn't the film sat on the shelf for a year because Gilliam and the Weinsteins were arguing over the ending? Hadn't Harvey fired the cinematographer and (quite rightly in my opinion) insisted that Samantha Morton not be cast over Gilliam's wishes? And wasn't the film suddenly rushed out on the market as part of the mass dumping of other troubled Miramax/Dimension titles when the real-life Grim Brothers were making their lucrative slash-and-burn exit from Disney? How could it possibly be any good?
The big surprise is that it actually is. While the bad reviews all seemed to focus on how this almost certainly wasn't Gilliam's vision of the film because of all the problems (as if he's known for untroubled shoots) and went to town on it, I found it surprisingly entertaining and even more surprisingly well-constructed. The screenplay is often genuinely witty and imaginative, the much-derided look of the film and its special effects are both perfectly right for the film in their sense of studio/storybook reality, Dario Marianelli's score is beautifully effective and the film itself is a lot of fun despite Heath Ledger's typical mumbling losing some of the funnier lines. Pitched somewhere between George Pal and Time Bandits, it sees a well paired Matt Damon and Ledger (mumbling aside) scamming their way from village to village vanquishing theatrically faked demons and witches until they find themselves up against the real thing in the form of Monica Belluci's immortal child-snatching queen ("She's 500 years old and the years have not been kind, I'm telling you!"). There's never much doubt about the outcome, and Jonathan Pryce and Peter Stormare's comic relief in the Terry Thomas-Peter Sellers roles is clumsily overplayed, but if you're willing to go along with it and take it for what it is rather than what it should be, it's a lot of fun. All in all Gilliam's most satisfying film since 12 Monkeys. I loved it.
Gilliam's commentary avoids being too specific about the production problems while the two featurettes are typical promotional love-ins, but there's a good selection of deleted scenes, including an excellent battle with a living tree that's more exciting than anything in the picture proper.
Movie Review: Into the woods...
Summary: 4 Stars
I think it takes a very special sort of mind to really appreciate this movie, as with anything original that doesn't apologise for itself. The Brothers Grimm is fresh and inventive, and really quite clever for anyone who's paying enough attention. It both warps history (turning the lawyer Grimms into imaginative charletans) and makes it a focus (setting the story in French-occupied Germany of the 19th century); it alters the familiar fairy tales while adhering to the very dark and sinister quality of the originals.
I went into this movie expecting a wild trip, and it more than delivered. The film pulls no punches when it comes to freaking the audience out. At times it verges far nearer the edge of the horror genre than a fantasy or an action-adventure flick, making grown women cringe in their seats (I saw this with three friends, all of us older than 20, and we were all shocked and horror-stricken at various points). The story sweeps you along, though; the violence and gruesome details are not extraneous, but rather underscore the very dark quality of the original tales that the movie is based on. It's this strangeness, though, that may turn off some audiences, particularly those with weak constitutions, or those who come in expecting your typical fairy-tale.
Matt Damon and Heath Ledger both put in excellent performances, though the latter outshines the former. Ledger here proves himself a real actor, not just a pretty boy, putting heartfelt sentiment and yearning into Jacob Grimm. Monica Belluci is underused as the seductive and creepy Mirror Queen, and Lena Headey is underapplauded as Angelika. Heady's performance was filled with energy and nerve, and I don't believe she got enough credit for it. Peter Storemare and Jonathan Pryce are also underappreciated in their roles as the outrageous Italian torturer-turned-hero Cavaldi and the almost unbelievably French overlord Delatombe.
If you're the sort of person who appreciated the more bizarre elements of Pirates of the Caribbean, or if you read the original Grimm tales and were entranced by the strange and dark delights in them, you'll find this movie extremely entertaining. Few films captivate imagination effectively anymore, and The Brothers Grimm certainly delivers on that front.
Movie Review: Wondrous and crazy
Summary: 4 Stars
British comedy is not for everyone, and british action flicks are really not for most people, especially when starring American actors. Once you understand and accept this fact of life, then you realize how good a movie this really is. The storyline is simple; the two Grimm brothers (Damon and Ledger) are traveling con men in Napeolonic Europe. They use their knowledge of optics, chemistry, physics and psychology to create apparitions in isolated villages, and then appear to save the villagers from these demons. The local French ruler (Price) uncovers their ruse and sends them on a mission to solve a real mystery in a German village. They, of course do, and proceed to become local heroes.
There are numerous aspects of this film that are quite impressive and admirable. First of, this is one of the few films to accurately portray European village life before the Industrial Revolution. The roads are muddy, the people and their clothes are dirty as daily bathing is unknown, bad hygiene (missing teeth, etc...) is universal, superstition is ingrained in daily thoughts and speech, and children of both genders often wear the same clothes. None of the Musketeer films have done such a good job of portraying rural Europe circa 1800.
Second, the action scenes are deliberate and integral to the story. There are no grand war scenes, nor eye-catching CGI. Every action scene progresses the story in some way or another, and each is innovative. A good example is when the farmer's horse swallows his daughter.
Third, the casting was quite good. Lena Headey was perfect in her role as the village outcast. She was attractive, but not too much as to cast doubt on the validity of her role as village outcast. The choice of Monical Belluci as the Mirror Queen was also great. She is very attractive, but for a queen who is centuries old, Belluci's natural age was a good fit. And Peter Stormare does quite well as local henchman.
I saw this movie twice; once at the theater and once on DVD. The DVD viewing is much better because I could read the subtitles. Terry Gilliam made this movie so authentic that a lot of the dialogue includes strong accents that can be lost in a movie theater, but which is captured with subtitles.