The Brothers Grimm- ***

So how excited was I for the release of a new Terry Gilliam film? Gilliam has been conspicuously absent from the screen since 1998's rather disappointing Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (with the exception of 2002's gut-wrenching Lost in La Mancha). The Brothers Grimm looked like it had all the elements…so what went so wrong?

This is a film that feels like it had so much edited out that we’re seeing a bare minimum of what the film should be, but at the same time, the plot itself doesn’t seem to require the two hours it already takes. The first half of the film, where we meet Wilhelm (Matt Damon) and Jacob (Heath Ledger) Grimm, moves at a lightning pace that does not fit Gilliam’s style. The quick cuts and jumpy edits never fully give us a chance to see what’s happening, and since Gilliam is all about his visuals, this hurts the film severely.

The Grimm brothers travel around Germany, taking advantage of villagers by pretending to rid them of the supernatural beings. They are discovered to be frauds by the invading French general Delatomb (Jonathan Pryce), who offers to let them live if they help him calm a dissenting village where children have been disappearing. Delatomb believes it is from another group of fraudulent exorcists. The Brothers Grimm, along with their guard Cavaldi (Peter Stormare) are thus sent to track down the shysters and find the missing children, in exchange for their freedom and their lives.

This is where the film finally starts to slow itself down. There is an interesting mix of several different fairy tales that combine to form the plot, but the farther we watch, the more we realize…that’s it? That’s the whole thing? Whiel the mixing of the fairy tales is sometimes clever, it is also sometimes extremely forced, as in the appearance of the gingerbread man from the sludge in a well. This is a great scene visually, but seems out of place. Even more out of place is a scene is a kitten being kicked into rotating blades. This could’ve been an interesting, darkly comic scene, but instead it seems to happen for no reason at all. In fact, most of the comedy, and the darker scenes don’t seem to fit in this world, as they do in his better movies.

Another detriment to the film is the lack of any sort of development at all. The beginning show young Jacob being taken in by someone selling magic beans, but we never really get a sense of how this affects the brothers, except for Wilhelm yelling, “MAGIC BEANS!!!” every once in a while. We’re given everything we need to be given, but nothing else. And the love story is so underdeveloped that the phrase “tacked-on” can’t even do it justice.

The only real stand out performance is Heath Ledger, since he’s the only character with any sort of depth to him. Matt Damon has little to do but bully his brother. Both Pryce and Stormare give the most scenery-chewing of performances, which could work in a Gilliam film (think Brad Pitt in 12 Monkeys), but they are so outrageous they overshadow the lower-key main characters. Stormare, who is usually known for being oddly low-key, is ridiculously crazed, especially in the earlier scenes, where the quick cuts make him into sort of a whirling dervish you can’t quite wrap your mind around.

This being said, the movie still has its good points. The special effects are hit-and-miss, but the fight with the trees is like something out of old 80s Gilliam. Once the movie calms down in the second half, and things start to happen, the plot does get more involving. But it reminds me a lot of Gilliam’s The Adventures of Baron Munchausen, which was also choppy and strangely uninvolving.

So, I’m left with one horrifying thought: has Gilliam lost his touch? The only thing that still gives me hope is Tideland, which comes out later this year, and seems to be Gilliam returning to the weird, psychological dealings of his best work. Let’s keep our fingers crossed.