Aug. 27, 2005 - 3:22 pm
Jill and i had been interested in seeing this one for the past couple of weeks. i guess we were both big fans of the traditional Grimm fairy tales and were interested to see how they could play out on the big screen. i'm also a fan of a few of Terry Gilliam's movies including Twelve Monkeys (1995) and The Adventures of Baron Munchausen (1988).
the movie is a fictionalized account of a few days in the lives of the real-life Grimm brothers. in this movie they are famous con artists who pretend to rid towns of legendary curses, even though they are actually faking the modern versions of the curses themselves. when the occupying French military forces begin to take notice of them, the brothers are forced into solving the mystery behind a real curse in which children are being systematically stolen from a village and taken to somewhere in a nearby forest. the movie also throws in bits of the traditional Grimm fairy tales seemingly at random.
i think when i was reading about this movie's plot, i was expecting to see different tales from the Grimms' stories actually taking place. really, you only get little hints at the stories themselves. that was fairly disappointing to me. this was more like a generic comedy/fantasy story which happened to have pieces of more famous tales somewhat haphazardly interwoven. the two main characters didn't necessarily need to be the real-life Grimm brothers, but i guess you sell more tickets if they are the Grimm brothers.
don't get me wrong; Jill and i did enjoy the movie a good bit. the chemistry between the various actors is decent, it's an interesting story, and fairly well told. one thing is that i think Matt Damon is starting to get too big of a head on him. sort of like his old friend Ben Affleck. i think if it goes on much longer, i might start avoiding Matt Damon films altogether. i do really like Heath Ledger though. he has a very great range as an actor. this was a completely new character for him as well. he plays a man who is very unsure of himself, not terribly bright in some aspects, and very reliant on his older brother.
so it was a good movie and i found it entertaining, but it wasn't all that i was hoping for. it didn't live up to all of the expectations i had for it.