The Brothers Grimm (2005)

Even though this is supposedly a historical fiction film, its fantasy undertow drains all of the comic relief into something absolutely stupid. The plot of the story makes no sense and it took me quite some while to figure out who was who in this movie. And to be honest, this is a story about legendary icons of folklore such as Cinderella, Snow White, The Little Red Ridding Hood, etc, but it brought my hopes rapidly down. Another reason being that given Jacob is the oldest boy in the Grimm family after his father died, he would be more likely logical than Wilhelm. Vis-a-vis, Jacob shouldn't be obsessed with magic beans. Also, my hopes were shot down once again when THE ONLY FEMALE LEAD IN THE CAST turned about to be a random girl named Angelika rather than Henriette Dorothea Wild, Wilhelm Grimm's actual wife.So, when all is said and done, don't watch this movie.

"Exactly what am I enduring here? Can somebody tell me who gave birth to this?"As in other Gilliam projects, this production was subject to a difficult birthing process, taking two years to complete, and having its release date pushed further and further back. When will it dawn on both the studios, and Gilliam himself, that his skills are far better suited to employment within art direction rather than sitting in the director's chair. No one can doubt that visually his movies are always resplendent. Yet, he often misjudges pace, and fails to attend to directing his cast to refine their performances. Overall, his movies can, and in this case certainly does, descend into cheap vaudeville comedy. The sole fact of his close proximity to the writing members of the Python team has not endowed him with their creative ability in terms of comedy, with many of the supposed jokes embedded within the script being nothing more than simple buffoonery. Much of the blame for the film's deficiencies have been lain at the door of the original scriptwriter, Ehren Kruger, and studio interference. Yet, Gilliam must be held to account for the rewrite he undertook - he and fellow co-writer, Tony Grisoni, (who had written the screenplay for Gilliam's last movie, 'Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas') having to be credited as 'Dress Pattern Makers' to avoid problems with the 'Writers Guild of America' - with a treatment which completely detracts from any of the dread and mystery of the original tales of the eponymous brothers. The premise behind the screenplay could have held great promise in the hands of a director who could have dissuaded members of the cast from treading the pantomime boards, and from adopting accents worthy of the worst of television comedy serials. In this film, the fairy-tale authors are recast as travelling con-artists playing on the suspicions of the rural indigenous population of French-occupied Germany at the end of the eighteenth century. The elder brother, Will, played with a strained British accent by Matt Damon, is an unapologetic pragmatist and ladies-man, while his younger brother, Jacob is a reserved bookish dreamer. In fulfilling the latter role, Heath Ledger, plays a nervy mumbling character who becomes a source of irritation, leaving many of his contributions indecipherable. One wonders if both would have been better served had they not jointly appealed to take on the role originally intended for their fellow co-star. The brothers are arrested and offered reprieve from the guillotine if they agree to unmask those responsible for a series of child disappearances within the nearby Black Forest. The French general who charges them with this mission is played by Jonathan Pryce, whose appalling French accent merely serves to reconfirm to this reviewer his true worth as an overrated ham. Meanwhile, Peter Stormare's agent should have really tried to dissuade him from adding his pantomime Italian sidekick to his CV. The only members of the cast to emerge with any credibility are the female contingent in Lena Headley, as the disinterested romantic interest for the brothers, and Monica Belluci, truly worthy of the epithet 'the fairest of them all'. In attempting to discover a rationale cause behind the disappearances, the brothers are forced to reassess their belief in sorcery and magic, while Jacob notes down much of what they witness serving as the germination for many of the Grimm's famous tales. As such, the plot is littered with clumsy attempts to incorporate as many of the tales' characters as possible, leading to ever more surreal and ludicrous inventions. The worst of these has to be the appearance of a gingerbread man, evidently made of mud, the CGI for which would suggest that this character was left on the cutting floor of a very early forerunner for 'Ghostbusters'. Though, the appearance of Damon and Ledger in frilly frocks 'a la Terry Jones' to incorporate reference to Cinderella runs it a close second. The final twenty minutes to half an hour rescue the production when the antics give way to the Belluci story-line which has the necessary Gothic atmosphere so lacking in the rest of the running time. This not only displays the undoubted talents of cinematographer, Newton Thomas Sigel but also the finer pieces of the film's score from Dario Marianelli.

THE BROTHERS GRIMM is an example of Terry Gilliam trying to recapture some of the magic of his '80s films like TIME BANDITS and THE ADVENTURES OF BARON MUNCHASEN. That it's a misfiring mess of a film is obvious from the outset, as this attempts quirky breakneck character comedy and fails throughout.The fantasy world and odd creatures that inhabit it, alongside the kooky/bumbling performances from the two leads, bring to mind the work of Tim Burton and Johnny Depp in the likes of CHARLIE AND THE CHOCOLATE FACTORY, SLEEPY HOLLOW, and ALICE IN WONDERLAND, although that's hardly a welcome comparison. In other words this is a typical, Hollywood-feel, over-stylised CGI adventure film with no character or wit to make it one to recommend.Matt Damon and Heath Ledger are both indescribably bland in the leading roles and neither of them are very funny either. There are better actors in the supporting roles, like Lena Headey, Mackenzie Crook, Jonathan Pryce, and Monica Bellucci, but they're all given very little to work with. For the most part THE BROTHERS GRIMM merely offers up endless sub-par CGI spectacle with the odd good scene, like the living clay figure. It's a mess, as are so many of Gilliam's films when you start looking too closely into his career.

It's very difficult to replicate the magic of a Terry Gilliam film, getting right that elusive mixture of perversity, whimsy, jet-black humor, and spectacular visual design.It's even difficult if you happen to be Terry Gilliam.In the height of the Napoleonic Era, brothers Wilhelm (Matt Damon) and Jakob (Heath Ledger) Grimm make a shady living off the superstitions of their fellow Germans. Then French occupiers press them into service to discover who is stirring up spooky trouble in the dark forests around the town of Marbaden. The Grimms figure it must be a rival group of hoaxers, and, under duress, take on the job of exposing them. The job proves more than they expect."The Brothers Grimm" is clearly a callback for Gilliam, working in the same comedy-fantasy niche he created with "Time Bandits" and "The Adventures Of Baron Munchausen." But his inventiveness and humor are missing. Instead of inventiveness, there are a lot of over-the-top sequences barely connected to the central story involving bad CGI. Instead of humor, you have people falling down a lot and the Grimms being shown up as bunglers at every turn.Told the "strapping young lad" he has been complementing is in fact a girl, Wilhelm gulps and adds: "And a fine young wife he'll make some lucky man."Both Ledger and Peter Stormare as an Italian torture expert suffer from extreme overacting. Ledger plays his character with much eye- twitching and spectacles-adjusting, as well as a stammer reminiscent of Ratso Rizzo. Stormare seems to be channeling Timothy Carey with his constant eruptions and wild stares. After not very long they become extremely distracting.On another planet is Lena Headey as the love interest, who being the main female in this predictable film sees right through the Grimms and tries to make them appreciate the true gravity of their situation. She plays her role with a grim naturalism that keeps fantasy at bay whenever she's on screen.It's definitely a Gilliam film. You have the cynicism up front ("It's a short brutish struggle and then you die," Wilhelm says. "Life's little subterfuges make it all worthwhile.") Cute characters are introduced in order to die horribly. What can you say about a comedy where the funniest scene involves a kitten being disintegrated? Certainly that's got Gilliam all over it.But the kitten scene isn't all that funny, and neither is anything else. The script seems to treat comedy as an afterthought, while using the Grimm fairy tales the same way "Time Bandits" used history, as the basis for various set-pieces. Yet the connections this time are witless and convoluted.You see a girl walking through the forest with a bright red cape, and think "OK, it's Little Red Riding Hood." But before anything else happens, she gets abducted and that's the end of her story. Or another little girl named Gretel walks through the forest with her brother, and is abducted. The most ridiculous of these is when a girl suddenly loses her entire face and is then abducted by a monster from a well. "You can't catch me because I'm the gingerbread man!" is the last thing we hear, referencing another fairy tale, albeit not one from the Brothers Grimm.Basically, the story doesn't need the fairy-tale dressings at all, it's just a parade of child abductions leading to an overbaked and nonsensical conclusion. But Gilliam and his team apparently needed the excuse to show off their CGI. They aren't good effects at all; ten years later you can see how poorly they were processed.One thing Ledger said in a supplemental feature sticks with me: "None of us would be here if it wasn't for Terry." The only reason "Brothers Grimm" got made was to give Gilliam something to do; this time it wasn't reason enough.