I had not realised this film was by Gilliam, but I grabbed it the moment I saw it was in the video store. Lots of fun, with his take on fairy tales suiting his style perfectly.
The Grimms are played gloriously by Matt Damon and Heath Ledger, cast in the opposite of the roles you would expect (Damon is the gregarious womaniser, Ledger the bookish idealist). This is not any kind of biopic, either. These Grimms are conmen, making up stories of witches to fleece people when they 'save' them from the creatures they invented. However, they end up facing some real fairy tale stuff as the bulk of the story.
The enchanted forest is excellent, with bits and pieces of most of the (real) Grimm's tales sprinkled here and there.
The adventure story is good, fun and fairly exciting. There's plenty of absurdist stuff too, like the over-the-top Italian torturer who ends up allied with the Grimms.
Thoroughly recommended, I'd say this was one of Gilliam's best comic films.
Brothers Grimm (IMBD)
Brothers Grimm (Amazon)
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3 comments:
I enjoyed this too, particualrly the off kilter performances from the two main actors. Strange this movie was so absolutely panned by all reviews and critics.
It might be one of those cases where the movie was written off as "bad" due to it being a bit too bizarre for reviewers to cope with. I can't really imagine any other reason for it.
Yeah, poor Mr Gilliam gets such a hard time, yet his movies are nearly always worth the watch
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