Review of The Brothers Grimm (2005) by Spangle — 11 May 2017

Over the course of his career, director Terry Gilliam has earned a reputation for making adventurous and greatly imaginative films. Setting his sights upon the fairytales created by the Brothers Grimm and a story of the two brothers as con artists who encounter a true fairy tale that inspires their books, it certainly seems on paper to be a perfect match. In many respects, the final product demonstrates just how at home Gilliam is at with the inventive nature of the fairy tales that instill the film with a great sense of wonder to accompany the incredibly dynamic and imaginative occurrences in the plot. Unfortunately, the film is just missing that it factor. It has everything there, but lacks that defining quality to make this another classic from Gilliam. Instead, it winds up being nothing more than a typical modern day blockbuster that wildly disappoints.

This missing factor is really what drives the film into feeling incredibly typical of mid-2000s Hollywood. In his best works, Gilliam's films have a few qualities to really define them as excellent adventure romps or imaginative explorations of the world. This defining quality is a great flow. With a light touch, Gilliam's films flow by nicely, never leaving you time to really notice the insanity on display and instead allow yourself to get swept up in the magical whimsy of the film. By the end, the worlds he creates are brimming with life, having scooped up the viewer and dropped them into this magical world of imagination. In The Brothers Grimm, however, every cog in the wheel is visible. Every imperfection. Every detail. Every bit is noticeable and the whimsical nature of the events is ruined. The sense of wonder is dispensed in the name of hitting every beat with no flow or sense of natural progression. Instead, it is an outline in film form with no connecting thread to make it all work. It is a Terry Gilliam that feels like an imitation of old school Gilliam, lacking the heart or grace with which he makes his films. Possessing every detail that a Gilliam film would have a decade prior, but lacking the purpose and wonder, The Brothers Grimm is a stiff production.

This stiff nature is reflected in the comedy, which is never less than clunky. Matt Damon and Heath Ledger are a joy to watch in their respective roles as the Brothers Grimm, but the lack of flow and heart provided by Gilliam finds its way to the script and dialogue. In his best works, any one-liners would work because they are simply arising naturally in the course of the dialogue. Here, it feels as if there is an emphasis on the comedy or an extra bit of punctuation added on that makes it feel tacked on and greatly unnatural. Immediately after any scene where a telegraphed joke falls flat or elicits a small amount of air to escape from your nose, you can feel Gilliam sitting in the seat next to you saying that he thought that part was hysterical. It certainly can be a funny film at times, but just as with its plot, the film's humor is often clunky and forced.

With regard to the story, the film is certainly mixed. Its sibling relationship is nice, but obvious. Setting it up with the two fighting as young boys when Jake (Ledger) sells a cow for beans, leaving the family with no money to heal their sister, it is always obvious how the strike will be resolved. Embracing magic and fairy tales in the world in direct opposition to the French government, the men will fight again before Will (Damon) realizes that Jake has been right all along: there is magic in the world. The story itself is a bit clunky as well with some obvious beats along the way and a shocking lack of originality. This is not a typical Gilliam film where a new and wondrous world is around every corner. There are moments like this, such as in Mercurio Cavaldi's (Peter Stormare) torture danger with cool torture devices and an orchestra to accompany the torture, but other than this one, the film is largely by-the-numbers. It is hard to hear Gilliam's voice amidst the sea of cliches and typical blockbuster events with the men being saved by conveniences (why did Will not get his throat cut), convenient and timely help, and squaring off with a comically awful Jonathan Pryce as the chief bad guy featuring a terrible French accent. Luckily for Pryce, he is not the only one with a bad accent here, as Peter Stormare is similarly comically bad with his accent. Together, they team up to create an opposing force who are demonized for not believing in fairy tales, even though Will himself does not believe in fairy tales and the duo con people by exploiting their hysterics related to fairy tales. So, by the end, it is clear that they are bad just because the film needed a bad guy, which is never true. If a film could come to fruition and reach the end without the bad guy being needed for the climax, it did not need that bad guy.