JCPhoenix
11-25-2005, 09:56 PM
Anyone else conflicted about The Brothers Grimm?
MAJOR SPOILERS, don't read if you haven't seen the film...
I'm a Gilliam fan (love Fear and Loathing (10/10), Brazil (10/10), and 12 Monkeys (9/10)) and I knew the reviews were bad for his latest offering even from some of his most die-hard fans...
And yes, I was disappointed with it like everyone said I would be...but at the same time, it's one of those rare times when I feel like there's dozens of brilliant, fantastic ideas hiding underneath all the problems in the film.
Don't get me wrong btw - I did end up enjoying it, but it's definitely no Gilliam masterpiece. I'd probably give it a 6/10 but it's one of those films that I find much harder to rate because it's so extreme - on the one hand, there are poor, poor, POOR aspects to the movie, on the other hand, there are some ingenious strokes to it as well.
The mood of the film was all over the place and while the slapstick Pythonesque humor of Stormare's character wasn't bad, that and the General character didn't really quite fit in with this film. I know Gilliam always has eccentric and quirky characters like that throughout all his films but in this case, it just doesn't work inside the framework of the movie. I think he should've stuck with the dark comedy albeit toned down a tad.
The first twenty minutes are hard for me to explain - I could see the Gilliamness of the beginning act but the chaos was completely overrunning the film and I just didn't care - AT ALL - about anything that was happening on the screen (except the Red Riding Hood part)...but then, somehow, it suddenly got a whole lot better...the story started making more sense (as soon as they get to the main storyline) and it started getting that delicate balance between the comedy and the twisted aspects of the story right. I enjoyed most of the film after that, as it kept getting better all the way till the climax. Loved Bellucci in the role and wanted to see her more in it.
This is an example of one of the movies I'd consider more uneven than anything...it's just so frustrating seeing so many cool scenes and neat ideas (I dunno about anyone else but I fucking loved the Gingerbread Man sequence and the horse eating sequence as well as most of the tower/Bellucci sequences) get screwed over because the film as a whole just doesn't quite work.
One of my other major sticking issues is the ending...Considering that part of this film is comedy it can get away with a happy ending - but this one was much much too happy for the tone of the film - and the happy ending doesn't even make a whole lot of sense to begin with. While I'm a fan of completely bleak and depressing endings, I recognize this doesn't fully work for this film so if it were up to me, I personally think they should've kept the kiss waking up everyone etc and breaking their spells and left Will Grimm dead. Which would've been a good mixture, sort of a bittersweet happy ending.
Personally I think if they cut out the first twenty minutes of the movie, toned down the comedy a bit and upped the dark aspects of it (while I love Burton's "darker" work like Sleepy Hollow, I've always felt that Gilliam's flashes of brilliance on their own tend to be better than Burton's - while Sleepy Hollow works altogether as a much better film, Gilliam's dark and twisted sequences like the horse eating and the Gingerbread Man parallel any creepy parts of Burton's film), kept a consistent tone, and ended with a more bittersweet ending, I think this could've been another great Gilliam film and still his most mainstream to date by far.
As it stands right now, it feels like a missed opportunity - this kind of movie grates on me the most, the type where you can see how brilliant they could've been with tweaking.
In any case, it's still entertaining enough (as long as I skip the first twenty minutes) for me to watch now and then.
MAJOR SPOILERS, don't read if you haven't seen the film...
I'm a Gilliam fan (love Fear and Loathing (10/10), Brazil (10/10), and 12 Monkeys (9/10)) and I knew the reviews were bad for his latest offering even from some of his most die-hard fans...
And yes, I was disappointed with it like everyone said I would be...but at the same time, it's one of those rare times when I feel like there's dozens of brilliant, fantastic ideas hiding underneath all the problems in the film.
Don't get me wrong btw - I did end up enjoying it, but it's definitely no Gilliam masterpiece. I'd probably give it a 6/10 but it's one of those films that I find much harder to rate because it's so extreme - on the one hand, there are poor, poor, POOR aspects to the movie, on the other hand, there are some ingenious strokes to it as well.
The mood of the film was all over the place and while the slapstick Pythonesque humor of Stormare's character wasn't bad, that and the General character didn't really quite fit in with this film. I know Gilliam always has eccentric and quirky characters like that throughout all his films but in this case, it just doesn't work inside the framework of the movie. I think he should've stuck with the dark comedy albeit toned down a tad.
The first twenty minutes are hard for me to explain - I could see the Gilliamness of the beginning act but the chaos was completely overrunning the film and I just didn't care - AT ALL - about anything that was happening on the screen (except the Red Riding Hood part)...but then, somehow, it suddenly got a whole lot better...the story started making more sense (as soon as they get to the main storyline) and it started getting that delicate balance between the comedy and the twisted aspects of the story right. I enjoyed most of the film after that, as it kept getting better all the way till the climax. Loved Bellucci in the role and wanted to see her more in it.
This is an example of one of the movies I'd consider more uneven than anything...it's just so frustrating seeing so many cool scenes and neat ideas (I dunno about anyone else but I fucking loved the Gingerbread Man sequence and the horse eating sequence as well as most of the tower/Bellucci sequences) get screwed over because the film as a whole just doesn't quite work.
One of my other major sticking issues is the ending...Considering that part of this film is comedy it can get away with a happy ending - but this one was much much too happy for the tone of the film - and the happy ending doesn't even make a whole lot of sense to begin with. While I'm a fan of completely bleak and depressing endings, I recognize this doesn't fully work for this film so if it were up to me, I personally think they should've kept the kiss waking up everyone etc and breaking their spells and left Will Grimm dead. Which would've been a good mixture, sort of a bittersweet happy ending.
Personally I think if they cut out the first twenty minutes of the movie, toned down the comedy a bit and upped the dark aspects of it (while I love Burton's "darker" work like Sleepy Hollow, I've always felt that Gilliam's flashes of brilliance on their own tend to be better than Burton's - while Sleepy Hollow works altogether as a much better film, Gilliam's dark and twisted sequences like the horse eating and the Gingerbread Man parallel any creepy parts of Burton's film), kept a consistent tone, and ended with a more bittersweet ending, I think this could've been another great Gilliam film and still his most mainstream to date by far.
As it stands right now, it feels like a missed opportunity - this kind of movie grates on me the most, the type where you can see how brilliant they could've been with tweaking.
In any case, it's still entertaining enough (as long as I skip the first twenty minutes) for me to watch now and then.