The Brothers Grimm
Director: Terry Gilliam
With: Matt Damon, Heath Ledger
Runtime: 118 min
The brothers in question, Jakob and Wilhelm Grimm, are said to have travelled the greatest part of 18th century Germany collecting fairy tales off ordinary folk and then publishing them, first giving public recognition to Germanic folklore. In Terry Gilliam’s new film, Jake (bespectacled bookworm) and Will (ladies’ man) also roam the country, skillfully instigating supernatural hoaxes, then getting the people to pay them to exorcise their respective sheds, houses and whatnot. It’s a man’s life, full of beer and casual conquests, until the French occupational forces coerce them into dealing with what begins to look like a genuine terror from beyond the grave. So, the brothers resolve their differences (apparently they had some) and learn valuable lessons about life and love in the process.
Sound a little forced, disjointed perhaps? Alas, the signals are set from the very beginning where a tragicomic scene from the brothers’ childhood is followed by a genuinely awe-inspiring title sequence. The film wants to be a horror comedy but the halves don’t fit: as a horror film it lacks a genuine sense of dread and it aims for grins yet merely raises smirks. I found myself comparing it to Pirates of the Caribbean and Sleepy Hollow, both more accomplished fairy tales, comedies and horror films than The Brothers Grimm is, and the conclusion is simple: this film needs Johnny Depp.
Heath Ledger as Jake seems to be attempting a vocal Alan Partridge impression that serves him well for comic purposes, but his beard wouldn’t let me see if this was acting or just a day at the fair for him. Matt Damon plays Will. Jonathan Pryce is the arch-fiend, a French general who almost foils our heroes’ triumph. The portrayal is so disgusting that it surprises me to see the French abstain from crying racism. The characters are cardboard cutouts who each have a handful of funny moments (in the beginning), but then talk of magic beans and other entirely insignificant things (in general and dramatic terms) leave the actors with nothing to do.
There are some beautiful and frightening visual quotations in the beginning: Little Red Riding Hood being chased through a sunless forest full of overarching branches and sloping walls of riverbeds, but they belong in a different film. They aren’t sustained by the rest of the film and in the grand finale, full of cannon fire and sword fights, nothing brings them back to mind. The screen writer forgets that to frighten an audience one must engross them, not feed them formulaic plot devices from any old Hollywood rom-com and explain away every mystery that appears.
It is saddening to see the keen eye of Terry Gilliam, who gave us the glorious comedy Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (and so much more), betrayed by a man called Ehren Kruger. The Brothers Grimm is different, but sadly there’s no happily-ever-after to be had.
Reviewed by Paul Becker
