The Brothers Grimm

Last weekend, I went to see Terry Gilliam's The Brothers Grimm. While it looks very nice, that's pretty much all it has going for it – which is a real shame, because I really like the idea. There are so many things that don't work here. The two leads have no chemistry, no spark, no magnetism. Take Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie in Mr and Mrs Smith; you couldn't take your eyes off either one of them – that's what's missing here. Neither Heath Ledger nor Matt Damon really holds the screen or makes you care. Lena Headey is good looking enough, but looks somehow too wholesome, and doesn't really make the part her own. The humour is obviously a really desperate attempt at Python (the french accents are so hammy that I expected a quick "ah fahrt in yer jeneral direction") and fails horribly at being anywhere near amusing; Peter Stormare gives one of the most cringe inducing performances I've seen this year. The whole thing feels very much like a charmless version of Burton's Sleepy Hollow. It could really do with being either funnier, or much darker than it is. It could also do with being about 30 minutes shorter (even though it's not the longest film in the world, it really does feel overly long). Overall I can see what Gilliam is trying to do, but I suspect that studio pressures dragged The Brothers Grimm too far from its original goal, resulting in a hammy, uneven, and boring end result.