| THE BROTHERS GRIMM |
 2005 - USADirector: Terry Gilliam
- Reviewed by Linda
Matt and Heath play Will and Jacob, the famous Grimm brothers who rove across the French-occupied German countryside ridding peasant villages of the supernatural. It is a big sham, but they sucker the poor folks out of their hard-earned cash to ease their minds, and, in a way, keep tradition and folklore alive and well. When they are busted by the French for supposedly exorcising a witch from one village, their punishment is to go to one cursed town, where children are disappearing into the woods, and figure out what the heck is going on. It is not a surprise, really, that maybe in this case there IS something going on. Little girls are disappearing one by one, and it is fun to spot the fairy tale story swirling around it. There goes poor Little Red Riding Hood. There is Hansel and his sister in the forest, but Gretel gets bewitched by a flying scarf and disappears. One girl finds that her mouth has disappeared from her face so that she cannot cry for help. But somehow these scenes come across as more interesting than magical, and I couldn't quite put my finger on what was missing. The root of all evil in the woods apparently lies in a tall tower with no access to the mysterious room at the top. Tall tales tell of a Mirror Queen (Monica Bellucci) who seduces men to be her forever lover, in return for, well, their eternal soul. It is up to the Grimms to figure out how the tower plays a role, why the woods are so creepy, and fight over the two token hot women in the movie (one good, one bad). The pace of the film is frenzied and non-stop. It certainly looks great, and the actors seem game. But somehow it seems rather strained and univolving... as though so much thought went into the making of it, that the passion just dissolved off the screen. What should be magical ends up being a bit stupefyingly uninvolving. To give credit where credit is due, however, I must say that the one standout in the film for me was Peter Stormare, as wacky misplaced Italian soldier Cavaldi, whose duty it is to guard the Grimms while they investigate. Stormare is a hoot, and could be the long-lost cousin of John Cleese's French Knight ("I fart in your general direction!") from Monty Python and the Holy Grail. Which, not so coincidentally, Terry Gilliam directed. Once again: Hmmm. |
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You have to be suspicious when a movie with big stars (Matt Damon, Heath Ledger, Monica Bellucci) and an acclaimed director (Terry Gilliam) gets released in late-August, the graveyard of the movie-release schedule. Hmmm. And it is being released by Miramax. Hmmm. Isn't Miramax getting dissolved, as the Weinsteins flee the baby they have birthed? This all does not bode well. I could dismiss this movie by saying The Brothers Grimm is, well, grim... but actually it's just simply a mess.
