Review of Two Brothers (2004) by Rafael M — 01 Nov 2004

Ok, this being my first review and knowing Two Brothers it's not even showing in the US anymore, I think, let's call it the dvd review even tho I just saw it at the theatre.

Anyway... Two Brothers... Hmm.

I had read great reviews about this film and I was pretty confident in its potential having loved "The Bear" and I was ready to be marvelled again by Annaud and his incredible knack for eliciting wonderful acting (through heavy editing and miles of film) from wild animals.

In the end, I left Two Brothers with a smile, but not the one I thought would be drawn on my face. The reason? Too much manipulation of the story. while "The Bear" felt subtle and almost like a documentary, TwoB came closer to the typical animal movie we have grown used to, thanks to hollywood and its need to fill the box with green. now, don't get me wrong, I still think it was a good story, but it felt placed on us. Bear was like life, unpredictable and challenging. TwoB was more story driven and thus, all the wonder was stripped off from the amazing prescence of the tigers, which still managed to take center stage and pull me in, make me laugh, cuddle up and at one lonely point even shed a tear. Had it been played by humans, I think the effect would have been the same. What I mean is... There was nothing in the story that made me think it could only have been possible having wild non-talking animals in it.

At times I found myself wishing the Mayor of the town to be eaten or something, he was really annoying in a non-comic relief way. His bits in the story were quite exasperating. Give that face time to the tigers please. I can do without the "greed against decency" lesson which was pretty efective and suficient at the begining of the movie with Mc Rory's scenes at the auction and his tearing down of holly statues.

The rest of the cast was ok. Boy archetype non-withstanding. I even liked the ruler of the land, I think that his story was pretty interesting and was overlooked for the sake of laughs.

And well, the tigers now... too human... even tho this happens quite unfrequently in the film, some bits were bordering on animal fantasy and you can almost say what they are supposed to be thinking out loud. It happened in the bear but in a way that did not take you out of the realistic vibe. I did not feel the anguish of ignorance or innocence in their scenes. they were just helpless victims too aware of their circumstances. the movie was too much of a movie.

And while there's a little more violence in this film, I never felt the terror, anxiety and compasion that the last quarter of The Bear inflicted upon me. TwoB was a little too toned down. The obvious and not at all surprising encounter of the tigers has nothing to do next to the frightening, shout inducing final meeting of the bears. Also, the dialog in TwoB is awful. Pierce's last lines are as corny and predictable as it gets. Too bad, he's a great actor and those lines, good as he is, just don't work for anyone but small children. Granted, it's a family movie, but that doesn't mean adults have to endure old cliches over and over for the sake of optimism and morality.

TwoB has a lot of merit but compared to Annauds previous effort in the land of the wild, I fnd myself not liking TwoB as much as I should have.

That's my humble opinion.

I recommend The Bear. I recommend Two Brothers too, but not as much as the former.