What do you get when you mix a highly respected fantasy writer and ex-python, with such great acting talents as Heath Ledger, Peter Stormare and Jonathan Pryce? The answer is, unfortunately, a disappointment.
The Brothers Grimm is a movie about Will and Jake Grimm (Matt Damon & Heat Ledger), who perform fake exorcisms in 19th century French occupied Germany. When arriving in a town, they use theatrical tools to trick the village into thinking there is a demon/ghost near, and use lots of effects and shiny props to “exorcise” that same supernatural creature.
When they are captured by an Italian mercenary named Cavaldi (Stormare, with a toupee and a over-the-top accent), and brought before the French General Delacombe (magnificently played by Pryce), they are ordered to investigate the disappearance of ten little girls in a village called Marbaden.
They arrive at Marbaden, and convince a huntress to show them the road through the forest, where they discover an ancient tower, with no entrance. Jakob suspects that the tower houses an 500-year old queen, who used black magic to stay alive, but who will need the blood of twelve young women to get her beauty back. Until then, her beauty only survives as an illusion in a mirror, the source of her life.
When another girl gets kidnapped, Cavaldi takes the brothers back to Delacombe, who threatens to kill them and Angelika (the huntress). They manage to convince the general, however, that the disappearances are not the result of black magic, but of German rebels, hiding in the forest, and they are allowed to continue their work.
Just as Jake manages to enter the tower in the forest, another girl in the village is kidnapped, completing the twelve needed. The Brothers manage to rescue the girl, having to fight a wolfman with a magical axe, and escape to the village. When they get to the village, they find that Delacombe brought his army, and intends to burn the forest, Grimms included. They are however, saved by Angelika, who manages to get herself kidnapped by the Wolfman (who turns out to be her father), and becomes the new twelfth girl.
The queen uses her magic to put out the burning forest, and to wreak havoc on the French army, which makes Delacombe and Cavaldi travel to the tower, where the Frenchman attacks the Grimms. After a fierce fight Cavaldi refuses to kill the brothers, after which Delacombe shoots him, but gets killed himself by Will.
Will and Jake enter the tower, where they fight the queen’s magic, and finally beat her, with some help from Angelika’s wolf-father, by destroying her magic mirror. Cavaldi managed to survive, by wearing one of the Grimm’s “magical” shiny armors, and recites a curse that breaks down the tower, after which he helps resurrecting the girls.
The brothers and the girls get back to the village, where they party and the Grimms decide to start a new living. In the final shot, a crow flies off holding a small part of the Queen’s mirror, with her eye still living in it.
When I first heard of this movie, it promised great things: it had Gilliam, action, good actors, beautiful scenery and a plot (which is not a certainty in most fantasy movies). It was, however, a huge letdown. The acting is mediocre at best (not including Pryce, who stars as magnificent as always), the scenery is impressive, but gets boring after a while, the plot is farfetched, and the brothers Grimm (who are given some weird backstory including a died sister and some magic beans) are just plain annoying.
The references to all the fairytales by Grimm are fun, but don’t make the movie any more enjoyable.
If this film was made by another, lesser, director, with actors who have got less of a name, it would be good entertainment, but this is just a huge waste of some great talents.
I would recommend this movie only to the die-hard Gilliam fan, who needs it to complete the collection.
