SO, I finally saw The Brothers Grimm staring Heath Ledger and Matt Damon last night at the cheapseats with Toshia. I thought it was very cute. I mean not the best movie ever, but entertaining, adventuresome, funny, whimsical - all hallmarks of a Terry Gilliam film.
The plot is that brothers Jake and Will are con artist running around the German countryside curing the peasants of their witches, trolls, and other local legends until they stumble upon a village that has a real wicked witch.
Heath's character is sort of a dreamer who believes in the fairytales and Matt's character is the logical one and the ladies man. Lena Heady, who plays the female lead was spectacular. Although how she managed to stay so clean still puzzles me a bit.
It was a blast counting up all the fairy tales that I recognized, even the ones that aren't overtly involved in the story like the Wicked Queen's gigatic stack of mattresses is clearly a reference to the Princess and the Pea. The special effects were fun, even if some of the backgrounds were obviously computer inserted ala Spiderman. And the crows were especially creepy. They kept making me jump in my theater seat.
There were also a couple moments where the continuity seemed a bit off. I remember reading somewhere that the most expensive special effects had to be cut out of the film because the rest was a let down after the visual extravaganza. Well, I think I figured out just where it got cut from, because I was momentarily lost right there.
The only major thing I didn't care for were the thick French and Italian accents. It was a bit hard sometimes understanding what these characters were saying. And I'm still not certain why that Italian guy was working for the French army...
Definitely rent it and watch it in surround sound.
No comments:
Post a Comment