catching up: The Brothers Grimm

I should probably be harder on this movie than I was. But the fact of the matter is that I enjoyed myself quite a bit watching this movie. Matt Damon and Heath Ledger are not exactly my favorite people, but I enjoyed them and their characters in this movie. It's Terry Gilliam's work, so you know that it's going to be visually distinctive.

I guess the main complaint I have is that they took the idea of slipping in the fairy tale references WAY too far. See, Shakespeare in Love is a fine example of doing this sort of thing well; there were great "inside jokes" like Will practicing his signature over and over, encountering Kit Marlowe and John Webster, and the incredibly complex way they interwove elements of many of Shakespeare's plays but most notably Romeo and Juliet. But with Shakespeare in Love, you felt smart if you got these, and that made them more rewarding. With Brothers Grimm, they hit you over the head with it and do it WAY too much.

It's a strange little fantasy/horror/adventury movie, and not as smart as it could have been, but if you go in understanding this, you'll probably enjoy it all right.