Eliminating evil since 1812.
Patchy and over-long fairy-tale struggles to find an audience - too scary for the kids, too slapstick for the adults. Some great performances and interesting extra's can't hide the fact this DVD is not one of Gilliam's best. All-in-all a bit of a mess, and a near miss!
Jacket Blurb
Matt Damon (The Bourne Supremacy, Ocean's 12) and Heath Ledger (The Patriot, A Knight's Tale) team with acclaimed director Terry Gilliam for this fantastic tale based on the legendary storytellers. Famous collectors of folklore, Will and Jake Grimm (Damon and Ledger) are also travelling con men who promise to rid towns of imaginary monsters and nonexistent demons in exchange for quick money. But they'll soon see things beyond even their wild imaginations when the twosome face a real enchanted forest.
Film Review
The critics, even long-time Gilliam fans, have been fairly unanimous in panning this movie, and, annoyingly, it's not hard to see why. It shows much of what we've already seen in 'Time Bandits' and 'Jabberwocky', without having any of the inventiveness or real originality of those movies. At times it's just too much like a really third-rate Monty Python movie. There's some good stuff in here, but there's a lack of consistency, or even consistently-paced story telling, that too often has one looking at one's watch when really one should be enjoying the eye candy up on the screen. And there's a LOT of eye candy, with something always going on, even if only in the background. No-one could criticise Gilliam for his attention to detail!
The two leads are fantastic, and fake their British accents to an astonishingly believable degree. Matt Damon surprises with a performance that belies his 'one note performance and lack of any perceivable personality' reputation, but it's Heath Ledger who steals the show here, and his versatility is such that he's becoming a name to watch for in upcoming movies. You could play this movie back-to-back with 'Brokeback Mountain' and 90% of the audience wouldn't twig they were watching the same actor! He performance as the sensitive but comedic Jake is never less than wholly convincing. Lena Headey was a newcomer to this viewer, and although I believed she was a fearless, attractive hunter, I never felt that the brothers were in love with her as they were supposed to be - she seemed too old and mature for both of them for this relationship to be convincing. I still haven't worked out if that's the fault of the actors or just the writing or a bad casting decision for this role.
Jonathan Pryce and Peter Stormare have a tougher time of it, playing pantomime villains, Stormare to the point where it's such a caricature performance it quickly becomes irritating. This is another problem of the film. Director Terry Gilliam talks, on the accompanying Director's Commentary, about wanting to keep things real with Damon and Ledger, but then takes away from that reality by having the main villains in the piece play things out as complete buffoons. Comedic value has already been introduced in the form of the two henchman characters, played by Richard Ridings and Mackenzie Crook. These two fine actors are scandalously under-used given that their all-too-brief moments on screen are pure comedy gold. Essentially Gilliam cant seem to make up his mind whether he's making a movie for adults or for children and the movie struggles to please both audiences, ultimately failing to please either: the 'real' parts of the movie are far too dark and horrific, particular the children's 'death' scenes, for kids, while the cartoon buffoonery is just too cliched and tedious for most adults.
The film has received much criticism for poor visual effects, particularly in the CGI work, but I have to say I was happy with what was on screen - certainly happier than I was with the dreadful 'blue screen' work in 'King Kong' and 'Narnia' which those same critics seemed to love - go figure! Certainly the wolf looks slightly unnatural in movements on a couple of occasions, but never so much that I was taken 'out' of the film they way I was with those other 'Movie of the year' (oh puh-lease!) offerings!
DVD Review
Given the asking price, the extra's aren't fantastic, but are adequate for what is, all-in-all, a nothing more than adequate movie. There's no chapter index leaflet, which seems to be the norm these days, but the inclusion of a director's commentary for such a recent film is an unexpected bonus, and the two featurettes, which one could criticise for being so short, are at least informative.
Picture and Sound
The picture is anamorphic widescreen at 1.85:1 and well presented. The Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack works well, and is given a good work out by both the atmospheric forest scenes and the stirring music.
Director's Commentary
Director Gilliam's commentary is lively and invigorated, but ultimately he's talking about a movie which isn't that interesting! Those who'd hoped for some 'inside information' on external influences, or a classic Gilliam outburst about the suits who ruined his movie are in for disappointment, with the only real hint of gossip being about one of the actors who walked off set one day, was persuaded back, only to then quit after another day, leaving one of the heavily made-up roles played by two different people in the film. He talks about casting (originally he'd wanted the two leads to play the roles the other way round) and is very open about the collaborative process that takes place and how ridiculous it is to talk about a 'Terry Gilliam' film given that so many people put so much effort into the overall vision.
Featurettes
There are twelve deleted scenes, which allegedly include the most expensive scene in the whole film, cut at the director's behest to much controversy. To be honest, I fell asleep before I got to it. The quality of the scenes is pretty poor - with low sound levels being particularly annoying, such that I didn't care enough to wade through more than a few of them. I fared better with the two 15-minute featurettes. Bringing the Fairytile To Life has the usual cast and crew interviews, with enough anecdotes and behind the scenes footage to hold interest - more so than most 'advertorial' featurettes of this nature. The Visual Magic of The Brothers Grimm is more of the same, this time covering special effects and, sensibly, is short enough to maintain interest without outstaying its welcome.
Final Analysis
Ultimately one is frustrated by the 'near miss' aspects of this release. So much is so good that this should have been a sure-fire winner, but the meandering script and inconsistent direction leave one frustrated at what might have been. One wonders whether Gilliam alone must carry the can for this failure, or whether outside influences are the cause. Given his enthusiastic commentary and interviews around the time of its launch, one has to suspect the former, which is bad news for those of us who like a bit of originality in our movies and have always followed this writer/director with interest.
The movie: 5/10 - A near miss.
The DVD: 6/10 - Adequate (but loses a mark in the 'overall' rating for the quality of the movie itself)
