Terry Gilliam and Grimm fairy tales mix incredibly well! Which is not surprising knowing the original versions of those tales were much darker before Disney made them kid friendly. This is a very interesting take on the Brothers Grimm and the tales they wrote. It blends dark fantasy with comedy and adventure really well. This is not based on one particular story, but rather includes elements and characters from many stories, and even more references and winks to other stories that are seemingly happening/happened in the same universe! The atmosphere is very good, dark and gothic, the characters are likable and the main story gripping. Overall it's a very enjoyable fantasy movie that is too often overlooked and underrated!

This film is based on the tales of the Grimm Brothers, but also makes a completely fictional portrayal of the brothers who, in real life, were German poets, scholars and linguists, who dedicated themselves to collecting traditional fables from the center of Europe. So the first step in understanding the film is to realize, from the outset, that its pure fiction, based on the mere existence of these two brothers. Here, they're two gamblers, who make money cheating the villagers, casting out witches and demons that don't exist. So their first reaction, when they're called upon to investigate a truly magical phenomenon in which several girls have disappeared, is of disbelief, thinking that they're dealing with an elaborate scold.The screenplay is clever, in the way it approaches Grimm's fairy tales and rebuilds them, but it lost from the middle, with some ideas and options looking absurd. Equally positive was the performance of Matt Damon and Heath Ledger in the lead roles. The two actors are versatile, strong and worked well together. However, the same cannot be said of Lena Headey, who seemed to me a bit artificial and cliché. Peter Stormare is the most humorous actor and the most remarkable moments of humor are made by his character, an Italian torturer at the service of Napoleonic officials. Jonathan Pryce is the French general and was perfectly capable of becoming contemptible. Good costumes and sets, clever cinematography, good use of colors and light and shadow games make the film visually appealing and beautiful.So, this movie is good and has several quality values. But the flaws in the story, the several moments when the plot is lost and becomes idiotic, overturn the attempts of this film to become truly iconic.

Will and Jake Grimm are traveling con-artists who encounter a genuine fairy-tale curse which requires true courage instead of their usual bogus exorcisms. The Brothers Grimm is a mess of lots of different films in one, it goes from being a Tim Burton rip-off to a terrible comedy to an even more weird mix of dark and gothic thriller meets Red Riding Hood and other famous fairy-tales. The acting is bland especially from the two main leads although Lena Headey does a pretty good job. Plus the movie is super slow and boring from start to finish and it's terrible script doesn't help either. Overall a big disappointment (2/10)

"Exactly what am I enduring here? Can somebody tell me who gave birth to this?"As in other Gilliam projects, this production was subject to a difficult birthing process, taking two years to complete, and having its release date pushed further and further back. When will it dawn on both the studios, and Gilliam himself, that his skills are far better suited to employment within art direction rather than sitting in the director's chair. No one can doubt that visually his movies are always resplendent. Yet, he often misjudges pace, and fails to attend to directing his cast to refine their performances. Overall, his movies can, and in this case certainly does, descend into cheap vaudeville comedy. The sole fact of his close proximity to the writing members of the Python team has not endowed him with their creative ability in terms of comedy, with many of the supposed jokes embedded within the script being nothing more than simple buffoonery. Much of the blame for the film's deficiencies have been lain at the door of the original scriptwriter, Ehren Kruger, and studio interference. Yet, Gilliam must be held to account for the rewrite he undertook - he and fellow co-writer, Tony Grisoni, (who had written the screenplay for Gilliam's last movie, 'Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas') having to be credited as 'Dress Pattern Makers' to avoid problems with the 'Writers Guild of America' - with a treatment which completely detracts from any of the dread and mystery of the original tales of the eponymous brothers. The premise behind the screenplay could have held great promise in the hands of a director who could have dissuaded members of the cast from treading the pantomime boards, and from adopting accents worthy of the worst of television comedy serials. In this film, the fairy-tale authors are recast as travelling con-artists playing on the suspicions of the rural indigenous population of French-occupied Germany at the end of the eighteenth century. The elder brother, Will, played with a strained British accent by Matt Damon, is an unapologetic pragmatist and ladies-man, while his younger brother, Jacob is a reserved bookish dreamer. In fulfilling the latter role, Heath Ledger, plays a nervy mumbling character who becomes a source of irritation, leaving many of his contributions indecipherable. One wonders if both would have been better served had they not jointly appealed to take on the role originally intended for their fellow co-star. The brothers are arrested and offered reprieve from the guillotine if they agree to unmask those responsible for a series of child disappearances within the nearby Black Forest. The French general who charges them with this mission is played by Jonathan Pryce, whose appalling French accent merely serves to reconfirm to this reviewer his true worth as an overrated ham. Meanwhile, Peter Stormare's agent should have really tried to dissuade him from adding his pantomime Italian sidekick to his CV. The only members of the cast to emerge with any credibility are the female contingent in Lena Headley, as the disinterested romantic interest for the brothers, and Monica Belluci, truly worthy of the epithet 'the fairest of them all'. In attempting to discover a rationale cause behind the disappearances, the brothers are forced to reassess their belief in sorcery and magic, while Jacob notes down much of what they witness serving as the germination for many of the Grimm's famous tales. As such, the plot is littered with clumsy attempts to incorporate as many of the tales' characters as possible, leading to ever more surreal and ludicrous inventions. The worst of these has to be the appearance of a gingerbread man, evidently made of mud, the CGI for which would suggest that this character was left on the cutting floor of a very early forerunner for 'Ghostbusters'. Though, the appearance of Damon and Ledger in frilly frocks 'a la Terry Jones' to incorporate reference to Cinderella runs it a close second. The final twenty minutes to half an hour rescue the production when the antics give way to the Belluci story-line which has the necessary Gothic atmosphere so lacking in the rest of the running time. This not only displays the undoubted talents of cinematographer, Newton Thomas Sigel but also the finer pieces of the film's score from Dario Marianelli.