Director Terry Gilliam returns to the movies with The Brothers
Grimm, an action/adventure/comedy that stars Matt Damon and Heath Ledger as Will
and Jake Grimm, who in 1814 are as famous as rock stars. However, the Brothers
Grimm are not renown for their fairy tales, but rather as a pair of fearless
monster/demon slayers. When the film opens, the brothers come to the aid of a
small village that is plagued by a witch, which leads to a horrifying battle
with the undead hag in the barn of a terrified farmer. Yet unbeknowst to the
villagers is the fact that the whole confrontation was staged by the Brothers
Grimm, who were working with two other partners in a dazzling display of
theatricality. The boys are just rolling along, riding high on their fame and
fortune, until they get arrested by the local authorities, who know full well
they are merely scamming the peasants in the area. The authorities would like
nothing more than to torture Jake and Will to death...unless they agree to try
and solve a strange mystery.
The small town of Marbaden has suffered the loss of nine children, all girls.
They have vanished in or near the vicinity of the forest, which is rumored to be
enchanted. The authorities think this is simply the work of another team of con
artists, and who better to sniff them out than the Brothers Grimm? But once Jake
and Will arrive in Marbaden, they find that all is not what it appears to be,
starting with their guide into the enchanted forest, a tough, self-reliant young
woman named Angelika who could give Xena some pointers on surviving the great
outdoors. The boys will need all the help they can get, for the supernatural
menace this time turns out to be all too real.
Although it's not as good as some of his earlier works (Time Bandits,
Brazil) Terry Gilliam's warped sense of humor is very much evident in The Brother's Grimm
(beware of the scene with the cute little kitty wandering into the torture
chamber) and it is a welcome change of pace from the cookie cutter,
don't-offend-anybody mentality that the major Hollywood films have fallen into.
Gilliam's rich imagination is perfectly suited for this story, which is not
afraid to get dark when it has to--but, ironically, at the very end, The Brothers Grimm
ultimately becomes a victim of that very same "safe" movie-making formula.
Another problem is that about halfway through, the movie begins to sag under its
own narrative weight, and the pacing never recovers. Despite the best efforts of
some superb actors like Peter Stormare, who truly shines as the mad Cavaldi, and
inventive use of the Grimm folk tales sprinkled throughgout the story, The
Brothers Grimm drags so badly in its last half, thanks to a predictable climax,
that it pactically limps towards the film's inevitible happy ending. The special
features include a commentary by Gilliam, deleted scenes, and two 'making of'
documentaries dealing with the film's production. The Brothers Grimm is
not as terrible as other reviews have made it out to be. Thanks to his
stylish inventiveness, a bad Terry Gilliam film is still far more interesting to
watch than the best efforts by many other directors.
--SF
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