The Brothers Grimm

All in all, “The Brothers Grimm” wants to be a fantasy/horror film, the latter element being the more successful of the two. Some of the violence is jarringly memorable (and surprisingly disturbing for a PG-13 studio film), particularly the portrayals of the gruesome fates of a few children. I doubt anyone will soon forget the sheer weirdness of watching a young girl be devoured by a horse, followed by the freakishly newly-fat horse making its escape from the freaked out villagers. Of course, for every oddball keeper like that, there’s a head-scratcher like the Gingerbread Man scene, in which the said character takes shape (courtesy of obvious CGI work), runs around for a minute, then disappears forever and isn’t mentioned again. It’s that kind of brain numbing, expensive special effects crap that places this film in the ballpark with so many other overblown but forgettable feature length visual effects reels.

Granted, it would’ve helped a great deal if we had a reason to care about the main characters, the titular brothers Wilhelm and Jacob (unmemorably played by Matt Damon and Heath Ledger). Both lead actors seem completely lost throughout the film, which repeatedly depicts them visiting new villages, bickering with one another, being taken prisoner, and escaping. Despite the fact that these guys are super-natural ghost-catching hucksters by trade (that “Frighteners” element), Jacob is supposed to be the Mulder of the two, always driving his skeptical brother crazy with his need to believe. As a kid, Jacob was the recipient of “magic beans” in exchange for the family cow, but he apparently never got to climb the beanstalk. Some people may find this type of nod to the original famous Grimms fairy tales to be intriguing, and in moderation, I’d tend to agree, but when the nods are all we ever get (ala “Smallville"), it quickly gets frustrating and cumbersome, which is the case with this movie. Kruger’s take on the historically scholarly brothers plays like some kind of “Shadow of the Vampire"-style revisionism gone wrong and out of control.

Gilliam is also to blame, since his directorial strengths do nothing to help mend the screenplay’s shortcomings. His apparent solution seems to have been to add a brownish gold look to everything in post-production (kind of creating the illusion of beautiful and ethereal cinematography), and hope the audience is sufficiently distracted by the fancy sets and aggressive CGI trees. Narrative storytelling has never been his strong point, as evident in the rambling “Adventures of Baron Munchausen” and the overly trippy “Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas”. In the case of the universally panned latter film, only recently has it garnered any true appreciation, thanks mainly to its excellent treatment on DVD by Criterion. I suspect that it would take a similar effort on the part of Criterion to one day salvage the reputation of “The Brothers Grimm” – but hopefully not before they get to the good Baron. (Or “Fisher King”, for that matter.) Hopefully Gilliam’s upcoming “Tideland” will turn the tide of his career, and bring him back to his former glory. In the meantime, all of us fans will be anxiously awaiting that long-in-coming Happily Ever After as we desperately try to salvage the worthwhile elements of “The Brothers Grimm”. That is, as soon as we can find a way to stay awake through it.

- Jim Tudor