The Brothers Grimm

Best known for his comedic antics in Monty Pythons’ Flying Circus, director Terry Gilliam brings this comedic and fantastical adventure. The film is a visual feast, with plenty of CGI, great costumes and action sequences. Gilliam delivers a darker fairytale for older viewers and the film has a fresh and original flare to it. Will and Jake Grimm are travelling con artists who meander from village to village pretending to protect townsfolk from enchanted creatures. Getting their friends to dress up as witches and then “fighting” them off in front of various village folk, they make quite a reputation for themselves. The buzz surrounding their fake abilities to do away with monsters and ghouls soon leads them to fall afoul in the eyes of the authorities. Ruler of a vast land of countryside, the French General Delatombe despises the Brothers Grimm but after young maidens start disappearing mysteriously, he reluctantly asks for their help. Being the masters of fraud, the Brothers find themselves facing a terrible and magical curse in a haunted forest which requires real courage. They have to try and use all the cunning they can muster to save the maidens, win the hearts of girls and defeat Monica Bellucci’s Mirror Queen, who they come more than just face-to-face with.

Matt Damon and Heath Ledger are more than adequately suited to their roles. Damon carries off an excellent British accent as Will, the lover and the realist. Ledger manages to go against his normal character role grain and proves to be very watchable. The film itself has a huge sense of fun, but at the same time some scenes have a real darkness to them rather than the usual character buffoonery proving that the film would have worked as a dark, macabre story as well as a comedy. However, the film is visually attractive, unique and a light-hearted. A piece of fairytale fun with plot twists and plenty of action which cannot fail to amuse.

Victoria Galloway