With Terry Gilliam, a disclaimer is usually required: Yes, I am aware that he usually creates so much chaos in his projects that it is a miracle we have seen any film of his in the theaters. And yes, I am one of those people who like his after-Pythons cinematic adventures better than what he did in that comedy combo. AND I did actually quite like the Adventures of Baron Muenchhausen. Now that’s a bummer, because I guess with this combination, I belong to a minority of, say, globally, three people. And now “Brothers Grimm”, the first finished film after the Don Quichote disaster, surely produced under closest scrutiny by whoever had his money in. In some scenes (usually involving pretty women and ugly witches) you can actually feel the hand on the writer’s / director’s shoulder, clawing him to do a bit more of this and show a bit more of that. But the result is: surprisingly good. It’s not a masterpiece, but you can find all the elements that make a good Terry Gillaim movie – maybe with the exception of this dark and lost atmosphere which caused “Brazil”, “Fisher King” and “12 Monkeys” to be more than just some Fantasy straight-to-video material. Less fantastic than Muenchhausen, less visionary than Brazil, less funny than Fisher KIng, Brothers Grimm is still a very convenient way to spend to hours. And that witch is very beautiful, you have to give!
http://dir.salon.com/story/ent/movies/review/2005/08/26/brothers_grimm/index.html
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0355295/
And Mark Kermode’s audio review
And now to something completely different… Tideland… soon to come …
thomas4cinema 