Back when I was a teen there was a Cinerama production of The Wonderful World Of The Brothers Grimm that starred Laurence Harvey and Karl Boehm as Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm. It was a delightful film that had some biographical material, but was more an excuse to put on screen, three of their collected fairy tales. Even adults could enjoy the film and one can still enjoy it today, but it ought to be seen on the big screen.

Half a century later and we get an entirely different view of the brothers in The Brothers Grimm with Heath Ledger and Matt Damon as the folk lore scholars. But reading the Wikipedia article on the brothers you will not get the view that this film gives us of them as a pair of 19th century con artists. These two make a living off the fears and superstitions of a lot of peasants. They go to places there rumor has it a local curse is on the place. The two with a pair of dimwitted helpers put on a show for the locals with methods that the Ghostbusters would envy. In fact up to this point the film reminds me of a combination of The Ghostbusters and The Lavendar Hill Mob.

But one fine day Damon and Ledger come upon a village with a real curse and an enchanted forest. Since they are folklorists they have to call on a store of accumulated knowledge to defeat the forest demons.

50 years later with much improved special effects with computer graphics we have a film more likely to scare and no doubt people go to films to be scared. Matt Damon and Heath Ledger head a fine cast and certainly the time and place of a disunited Germany occupied by Napoleon's troops is better displayed.

Still the fantasy of the Cinerama film is to be preferred.

THE BROTHERS GRIMM is an example of Terry Gilliam trying to recapture some of the magic of his '80s films like TIME BANDITS and THE ADVENTURES OF BARON MUNCHASEN. That it's a misfiring mess of a film is obvious from the outset, as this attempts quirky breakneck character comedy and fails throughout.

The fantasy world and odd creatures that inhabit it, alongside the kooky/bumbling performances from the two leads, bring to mind the work of Tim Burton and Johnny Depp in the likes of CHARLIE AND THE CHOCOLATE FACTORY, SLEEPY HOLLOW, and ALICE IN WONDERLAND, although that's hardly a welcome comparison. In other words this is a typical, Hollywood-feel, over-stylised CGI adventure film with no character or wit to make it one to recommend.

Matt Damon and Heath Ledger are both indescribably bland in the leading roles and neither of them are very funny either. There are better actors in the supporting roles, like Lena Headey, Mackenzie Crook, Jonathan Pryce, and Monica Bellucci, but they're all given very little to work with. For the most part THE BROTHERS GRIMM merely offers up endless sub-par CGI spectacle with the odd good scene, like the living clay figure. It's a mess, as are so many of Gilliam's films when you start looking too closely into his career.

Terry Gilliam's Brothers Grimm tells the story of the disappearances of several girls, and so enter the Brothers Grimm. Matt Damon and Heath Ledger are both excellent in the title roles, Ledger especially with a more sympathetic portrayal than expected. I liked Peter Stromare and Jonathan Pryce here too. The film is full of clever nods to their fairy tales. The production design is a wonder, with lavish sets and colourful costumes, and there is some evidence of some detailed direction, if a little too serious. However, I wasn't keen on Lena Headey's performance as the main female character, and the storyline is very daft, and sometimes in the middle half bordered on getting a bit too silly. The script was okay, but perhaps because of the story it was underdeveloped, and cheesy in some places, and it was further undermined by a rather anti-climatic conclusion, that left me a little confused. Still, not a bad film, not awful but not great either. It is well performed and well designed, but is let down by the story and script mainly. 6/10 Bethany Cox.