Review of The Brothers Grimm (2005) by Danny D — 20 Feb 2011

I've been putting off watching this for ages thinking I would hate it and, what do you know, I rather enjoyed it in the end. I can't help feeling sorry for Terry Gilliam though. Is it any wonder his movies are so scrappy given the production difficulties that invariably dog his work? On this one, having already fought unsuccessfully with the Writers Guild of America (again) to credit his co-authorship of the script, and having also struggled to find a distributor, Gilliam was forced to shoot his movie with a toxic atmosphere on set and an officious Weinstein brother in each ear vetoing his decisions.

So, yes, it's messy, and the flimsy plot - which casts the eponymous brothers as mitteleuropean ghostbusting charlatans - never develops into anything more than an excuse to reference as many fairy tales as possible (with nods to Millais' Ophelia and Elizabeth Báthory, the Blood Countess), but visually it's absolutely gorgeous, truly one of the best-looking fantasy films you'll ever see.

Perhaps the biggest flaw, for me, is that the movie, ironically, seems to work better whenever the Brothers Grimm themselves are off screen. Ordinarily I've got a lot of time for Ledger and Damon but their performances here are a little too frantic for my taste; Peter Stormare and Jonathan Pryce are even further off the scale.

Much better are Lena Headey, as the gutsy heroine, and Monica Bellucci, practising her wicked queen chops.