Rated PG-13 for violence, frightening sequences and brief suggestive material.
118 Minutes
Directed By: Terry Gilliam
Written By: Ehren Kruger
Staring: Matt Damon, Heath Ledger, Lena Headey, MacKensie Crook, Jonathon Pryce, Peter Stormare, and Monica Belluci
Will, Will, Will, listen. This is the real world. We’re-we’re men without a country, we’re enemies of the state, and worst of all we haven’t a single bean to our name. -Jacob Grimm
Review
The dark and murky world that The Brother’s Grimm is set in has a wistful set design that interludes mythology and fairy tales in a most distorted fashion. The notion of creating this despairing world with a sense of comedy often interluding is something regularly delivered by Tim Burton, but director Terry Gilliam (Fear And Loathing In Las Vegas) keeps the drama, action, and humor well enough, but not always with great execution.
Will and Jake Grimm are traveling con-artists who encounter a genuine fairy-tale curse which requires genuine courage instead of their usual bogus exorcisms. As they begin to unveil the truth behind the tale, fear and excitement involving the engagement draw lines between the two brothers, and as things get stranger their fate becomes even more dire.
The two brothers played by power house actors Matt Damon and Heath Ledger have a kinetic energy that plays off each other like peanut butter and jelly. This role as a brother may be overlooked when compared to some of Ledger’s other work, but stood out as one of his better performances. The nuances he gave his character, the passion and simplicity gave the rest of the more cartoon like character’s some credibility, while at the same time still comfortably fitting into the magical world. It was Ledger’s performance that grounded a film that often felt like had a bit too much of Wonka’s fizzy lifting drink.
Stylistically the setting is amazing. The strange and distorted fairytale world came across as mangled and frightening. While the set itself is impressive the CGI lacks considerably. Sometimes filmmakers rely too heavily on CGI and the result is effects that do not look real. So was the case throughout The Brothers Grimm. It often becomes distracting how unrealistic some of the world and effects appeared, which takes away from the whimsy of the story, and certainly detracts from the tension that has been created, which in spite of the whimsy and comedy, is very present throughout.
Unfortunately because there were so many criss-crossing stories and character arcs that all happened at in-congruent moments the pacing of the movie was completely off. You begin to learn things about the brothers, about the faerie tales and myths, about the town, where they’ve been, where they’ve gone, and of course the twist of their initial assumptions. Many times things felt jumbled and confused or as though something important kept getting lost on the editing floor. It was exceedingly difficult when everything felt like it wasn’t suddenly coming together and then once again something else was there to distract you.
The Brothers Grimm was incredibly entertaining, while not always successful in it’s delivery. Full of action, peculiar story lines, and the much often needed comic relief, it became a pretty enjoyable movie in spite of it’s faults. There was enough fun and great character moments that made this film redeem itself regularly. This probably isn’t’ one you want to run out and buy, but it’s definitely worth a rental.
I saw this because of Ledger, but I didn’t enjoy it. It was worth a rental I suppose, but definitely won’t buy it. I forgot Lena Heady is in this, she is so beautiful!
rtm recently posted..FlixChatter Review- RED
There was enough eye candy to make up for some of the story flaws. By the end I was pretty frustrated with all the twists and chaos and kind of wanted it to be over. The character arcs were disappointing but overall it wasn’t a complete miss. I really liked the idea of Ledger and Damon together too.
Heather recently posted..Review- Red 2010
I have a sort of a soft spot for this, although I’ll admit it didn’t live up to my high expectations I found it charming in its weird way. I really like Monica Belluci here who’s kind of phenomenal with her small role.
Encore Entertainment recently posted..Music Break with the Cast of Rent
If by phenomenal you mean drop dead gorgeous with a little edge of wicked twisted then by all means I agree.
Heather recently posted..Review- Red 2010
Yeah, pretty much.
Encore Entertainment recently posted..Flashback- Hello- Dolly!
This is one of those movies I was really looking forward to when it was announced, childhood love of the Grimm tales, but as they got closer and closer to the release date, my interest weakened, and ultimately failed. I have no doubt I’ll catch it some day on DVD, but at the moment I’m not in any great rush.
Univarn recently posted..
It’s kind of a let down, even though I didn’t have high expectations, you can feel that it could have been so much better while watching it, and yet it still was entertaining if for nothing else the duo of Damon and Ledger……..and the spice of Headey.
Heather recently posted..Review- Red 2010
This is one of three movies I have ever walked out of. SO BAD.
Man, I loved it.
I can see not being enchanted by it, but I’ve seen FAR worse movies. Kind of funny to hear this from you Jon.
Heather recently posted..Review- Red 2010
As a fan of Heath Ledger, I enjoyed this film. Visually stunning, well acted, The Brothers Grimm remains an enigmatic and dense entry into Gilliam’s oeuvre.
Rodney recently posted..Vale – Simon MacCorkindale
Yes! It certainly missed any attempts at being something cinematically memorable, but it was a well enough done movie, that frankly one of the few that could someday reap the benefits of a remake because so many good ideas and concepts were done throughout.
Heather recently posted..Review- Red 2010
Well that mirror breaking scene sort of stuck with me, and that weird mud thing from the well too.
Encore Entertainment recently posted..Flashback- Hello- Dolly!
It is a rather sloppy and busy movie, but a movie that I like to revisit every couple years just because it has Ledger and Damon in it. Will be interesting to see where they go with the sequel.
Red recently posted..