Hey folks, Harry here... Here's one of those reviews that doesn't give you much to go on, but seems to complain about the running time, which given that THE BROTHERS GRIMM isn't due for release till November 19th of this year... well, Gilliam's films tend to get trimmed down from their initial cuts. The production design on this film has been absolutely beautiful - as one would expect, I just wish that Matt Damon's nose would have been messed up as originally planned, just cuz... well... I love disfigured actors in movies... especially in Gilliam movies. This is definitely one of my most anticipated films of the year. Here ya go... basically no spoilers here...
hey harry -
tonight I went to a test screening of Terry Gilliam's next movie, The Brothers Grimm. We got the usual "no cameras; don't put this on the internet; this hasn't been color corrected," speech and then they started the movie. Basically it's about The Brothers Grimm - as in the authors of the fairy tales - played by Matt Damon and Heath Ledger.
When we first see them, they're hoaxing a small town into paying them to rid the old mill of a witch. They stage an attack from the "witch," and make it look like they killed her, only to move on to the next town and do the same thing all over again.
Meanwhile, Napoleon's armies are taking over a small German town. Also in this town, a bunch of little girls have gone missing, probably into the scary woods nearby. So of course The Brothers Grimm get called in to investigate, and for the first time they actually DO have to face the supernatural.
They're torn apart over a local tough girl (Lena Headey, whoever she is), and interact with some supporting characters played by the likes of Monica Bellucci, Peter Stormare, and Jonathan Pryce.
Overall the story was pretty interesting, once it finally got into gear, but it was a little too long - just under two and a half hours. I know Gilliam likes to take his time, but for the most part I wasn't crazy about the French military stuff.
One fun game during the movie was to spot the little things that would obviously later inspire little details about the Grimm fairy tales, a la Shakespeare in Love or George Lucas in Love. Problem was, the brothers were usually not even around to witness most of these occurances - kinda like how no one heard Charles Foster Kane say "Rosebud."
Overall I recommend it, and I will definitely see it again upon its release to check out the effects shots.
Take it easy...
-00Kevin
