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#245 - The Brothers Grimm
Terry Gilliam, 2005
Two brothers work as supernaturally-themed con artists in 18th-century Germany but are soon forced by French occupiers to confront genuine magical dangers under pain of death.
It's always disappointing to see a director you like make a bad film. The Brothers Grimm has an interesting enough concept for a dark fairytale kind of movie, which would be well within the purview of a filmmaker as well-versed in the fantastic as Terry Gilliam would be. Unfortunately, the resulting film comes across as a horribly dull and self-referential mishmash where the best qualities often seem like the director is spinning his wheels rather than creating anything genuinely worthwhile. Matt Damon and Heath Ledger play the titular brothers, who are divided into the roles of cynic and believer respectively. They (along with all the other German characters) speak with English accents, which sticks out considering how all the French characters (and Peter Stormare's Italian mercenary) all have the appropriate accents. What follows is an adventure involving a sinister French general (frequent Gilliam collaborator Jonathon Pryce) catching the duo out on their exorcism-based scams and forcing them to find out what happened to a group of girls who have gone missing in a haunted forest, accompanied by Stormare and an embittered huntress (Lena Headey). This leads them to discover an ancient folk tale about a vain queen (Monica Bellucci) who is still very much alive and causing havoc.
Being a Gilliam film, The Brothers Grimm does have some rather decent art direction but that is ultimated cancelled out by some extremely lacklustre CGI even by 2005 standards. The story itself feels boring and way too long for such a simple piece of work, plus all the various references to the actual Grimm fairytales feel way too contrived to be clever. There is virtually no chemistry between the two leads or any of the other characters they encounter and they aren't even solid actors in their own right. Gilliam hasn't always done good movies, but at least the other ones I weren't so fond of were at least interesting enough to hold my attention. I can't decide whether or not this film is Gilliam descending into self-parody or simply a result of him being way too neutered by executive meddling to produce an intriguing film, but in all probability it was both.
Terry Gilliam, 2005
Two brothers work as supernaturally-themed con artists in 18th-century Germany but are soon forced by French occupiers to confront genuine magical dangers under pain of death.
It's always disappointing to see a director you like make a bad film. The Brothers Grimm has an interesting enough concept for a dark fairytale kind of movie, which would be well within the purview of a filmmaker as well-versed in the fantastic as Terry Gilliam would be. Unfortunately, the resulting film comes across as a horribly dull and self-referential mishmash where the best qualities often seem like the director is spinning his wheels rather than creating anything genuinely worthwhile. Matt Damon and Heath Ledger play the titular brothers, who are divided into the roles of cynic and believer respectively. They (along with all the other German characters) speak with English accents, which sticks out considering how all the French characters (and Peter Stormare's Italian mercenary) all have the appropriate accents. What follows is an adventure involving a sinister French general (frequent Gilliam collaborator Jonathon Pryce) catching the duo out on their exorcism-based scams and forcing them to find out what happened to a group of girls who have gone missing in a haunted forest, accompanied by Stormare and an embittered huntress (Lena Headey). This leads them to discover an ancient folk tale about a vain queen (Monica Bellucci) who is still very much alive and causing havoc.
Being a Gilliam film, The Brothers Grimm does have some rather decent art direction but that is ultimated cancelled out by some extremely lacklustre CGI even by 2005 standards. The story itself feels boring and way too long for such a simple piece of work, plus all the various references to the actual Grimm fairytales feel way too contrived to be clever. There is virtually no chemistry between the two leads or any of the other characters they encounter and they aren't even solid actors in their own right. Gilliam hasn't always done good movies, but at least the other ones I weren't so fond of were at least interesting enough to hold my attention. I can't decide whether or not this film is Gilliam descending into self-parody or simply a result of him being way too neutered by executive meddling to produce an intriguing film, but in all probability it was both.