www.miramax.com/thebrothersgrimmDir: Terry Gilliam
Cast: Matt Damon, Heath Ledger, Peter Stormare, Lena Headey
Terry's latest fight
hacked, dubbed, laughable effects
a grim fairytale
After reading that quote on the DVD sleeve - "It's just cheap and ineffective, slightly entertaining but not nearly enough to be worth the time!" - my expectations for The Brothers Grimm were suitably lowered. It didn't help that the production was hampered by a massive row between the director and the studio, Miramax, which resulted in an extended hitaus in which Gilliam went off to make Tideland. Still, with a reported budget of $83 million behind it, and Terry Gilliam - the man behind Brazil and Twelve Monkeys - at the helm, surely it couldn't be a complete disaster? Oh yes it could. The two brothers Wilhelm (Damon) and Jacob (Ledger) are basically a pair of travelling conmen, writing their folk tales and pretending to protect villages from non-existant threats. Until they're employed by Delatombe (Jonathan Pryce) to rid one village of a very real curse - a Queen (Monica Bellucci) who's trapped in a tower and whose spell leads to the kidnapping of the local children. With accomplice Cavaldi (Stormare) in tow, and enlisting the help of village girl Angelica (Headey) they actually have to face up to the facts that some fairytales really do exist. On paper it's a reasonable concept but on screen it's a sprawling mess, uneven, and badly edited with chunks apparently missing. Okay, so one minute Delatombe has Angelica tied up in the village, the next scene she's in the woods... erm, did I miss something? It wouldn't seem so bad if the characters and dialogue were engaging, but sadly The Brothers Grimm is lacking in those departments too. Whilst Damon (who actually does a good job in the face of adversity) and Ledger both attempt English accents with mixed success, all the other Germans seem to speak in either broad Cockney or Geordie accents! And all the kids seem to be dubbed - badly. Even Stormare, who you can usually rely on to provide a bit of entertainment, is quite awful, with his rambling presence throughout as welcome as fingernails on a blackboard. But this isn't even the worst of it... the film looks shoddy too. Somone must have been siphoning off the coffers because I can't see those millions of dollars on screen. The scenes in the woods are the biggest culprits where it's so obvious that you're watching a film set with illustrated backgrounds. And then there's the not-so-special effects, with some horrendous CGI wolves that even make the hyenas in Exorcist: The Beginning look good, and that takes some doing! Whatever talent Gilliam still has - and I'm sure he does, you don't suddenly become crap overnight - it's just been diluted and washed away by this long battle with Miramax. This is a huge disappointment from a visionary director. The brothers are very grim indeed I'm afraid to say.
soulmining rating: *
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