brothers grimm

THE FLICK: There are two ways to approach a review of The Brothers Grimm: as a conventional summer movie starring “movie stars” Matt Damon and Heath Ledger...or as film by Terry Gilliam, the distinctive director of such films as Brazil and Time Bandits. The real tragedy is no matter which perspective you choose, they both end up with the same mixed results. As with Tim Burton and Sleepy Hollow, conceptually this seems to be a case where filmmaker and material are perfectly matched. Gilliam’s best work revolves around fairy tale imagery presented with a uniquely chaotic charm, featuring characters caught between a dream world and the corrupting influence of reality. And thematically The Brothers Grimm is a logical addition to this oeuvre. But in execution, the film is simply a shell of digital effects, set design and unintelligible accents – a Gilliam knock-off that just so happened to be directed by the man himself. After an insultingly brief prologue, we meet brothers Will and Jake 15 years later as traveling con-men who convince villagers of impending supernatural doom, then accept payment to dispose of the evil spirits (which are actually elaborate hoaxes staged by their assistants). When a French colonel (Jonathan Pryce) finally catches up to them and threatens corporal punishment, the brothers agree to investigate the disappearances of 11 girls in a neighboring community...only to find this enchanted forest is the genuine article. Werewolves, witches and an army of living trees are just a few of the dangers the dangerously unprepared brothers must overcome to save their own necks and face their own fears. Written by Ehren Kruger (of The Ring and Reindeer Games), the script is merely a skeletal structure from which Gilliam hangs his directorial conceits. Dialogue runs rampant but is rarely understood. Sets swallow up the actors with visual excess. And ideas bubble up in almost random fashion. In much of Gilliam’s work, this chaos becomes his greatest asset, organizing itself into an unpredictable collage of stream of consciousness filmmaking. But in The Brothers Grimm he simply loses himself in one creative cul-de-sac after another, with no trail of bread crumbs left to find his way out. From a purely visual standpoint, the film is a satisfying projection of a living fairytale (although the obvious CG work seems out of place in Gilliam’s usually organic universe). It’s a beautiful film to watch, with each new setting revealed as if turning a page in the Grimm’s magical book. But the lead characters are undeveloped and miscast (Damon and Ledger can’t quite hit the note of fey British timidity required for the roles) while supporting player Peter Stormare is allowed to run wild. The film feels inexplicably both too short and too long. And the result is simply another storied troubled production to the career of a wandering auteur. THE FEATURES: Despite on-set troubles with the studio (the original director of photography was fired and the film itself was shelved an inordinate amount of time for “re-tooling”), Dimension gives Gilliam a fair chance to make his case on DVD. Twelve deleted scenes are included with a commentary to go along with the feature film. But Gilliam never really goes out of his way to explain himself or address these issues. He does however provide his usual candid discussion of the production process, including a complaint about how Matt Damon’s “Hollywood-white” teeth clashed with his down and dirty directorial vision. Bringing the Fairytale to Life is a rather typical featurette with interviews and behind-the-scenes footage, although it does touch on the casting the leads against type (a risk which didn’t really pay off). The Visual Magic of The Brothers Grimm provides some side-by-side comparisons of the effects work and early animatics used to design the film with Gilliam and crew inserting their share of comments. Overall, a reasonable amount of extras for a film that will surely find an audience of admirers.