Brothers Grimm, The

MPAA Rating: PG-13

Entertainment: +2

Content: -3

This fantasy thriller, with some comedy, is set in small German villages in 1796. Will (Matt Damon) and Jake (Heath Ledger) Grimm have a reputation as successful exorcists of spirits and curses but are in reality con-artists who fake scenarios to get people to pay them to have bogus spirits removed. When girls like Little Red Riding Hood, Gretal and Snow White mysteriously disappear between Germany and France, communities panic and call the brothers Grimm into action. But the Grimms realize they have a true curse on their hands. Angelika (Lena Headey), who lost her family years ago in these woods, is the only one who understands the magical sorcery they face. Together, Will, Jake and Angelika battle trees and monsters of various sorts, but the Grimms still suspect they are being tricked as they have tricked others, but far more convincingly.

The fairytales and fables written by the Grimms are turned into something far more horrific, making The Brothers Grimm for an adult crowd. The story is that an evil queen cast a spell on the land years ago and now seeks to rise from the dead and resume her rule. A series of scary spirits and an ax-carrying henchman are ruthless in their attacks. A wolf disembodies a man in the forest with a significant amount of gore. An evil horse attacks a little girl and swallows her whole. A little girl is covered in goop and horrifically looses all of her facial features until she is encapsulated in the goop and then turns into a gingerbread cookie and disappears. Crude and obscene language is minimal, but there are several uses of profanity. The graphic violence, an inappropriate male/female relationship and the use of sorcery and magic for evil purposes earn the film a grim view from Preview.

Preview Reviewer: Brian Hughes
Distributor: Miramax

Summary
The following categories contain objective listings of film content which contribute to the subjective numeric Content ratings posted to the left and on the Home page.

Crude Language: Few times (4) – mild (hell 2, damn 2)

Obscene Language: Once – strong (BS 1)

Profanity: Several times (8) – moderate (MG 1, OG 1, G 5); strong (C 1)

Violence: Many times – mild (lots of little girls screaming as they are attacked, unknown spooky characters chasing little girls and making them disappear, man has legs tied with ropes and pulled, men are hit in the head with rocks, scary man with an ax, ghostly witch with gruesome face flies down from the ceiling to attack two men, men are locked in hanging cages in a dark torture room, man smacks another man around, men hit each other, man hits another man in the head with the butt of a gun, cannon are shot into a burning forest, ax hits man in the back and kills him, sword fighting); moderate (boy knocks his brother to the floor and kicks him; boy shoots witch in the heart; horse is grabbed by living trees, carried to the top of its branches and then dropped; men are beaten with whips; spike pushed in the heart of a man to prove his devotion to a witch); strong (two men are tied to chairs upside down with glass boxes filled with large snails on their heads, then lowered to a boiling inferno of water; it is said that children are the food for trolls; woman skins and guts a rabbit; horse is fed strange spiders and then turns evil; this horse later eats a little girl whole; living tree eats a man and pushes roots through the man’s body and out of his mouth; disembodied man falls from a tree; man is hung by ropes and tortured; kitten is chopped up by large fan blades, and man eats some of the splatter)

Sex: Few times – mild (man in bed with two women when they wake up, implying sexual intimacy; decomposed queen/witch entices men to desire her and lay with her in her bed)

Nudity: None

Sexual Dialogue/Gesture: Few times – mild (man entices his brother to take a prostitute to his bed, but man refuses)

Drugs: Several times – mild (men drinking ale); moderate (men get fall-down drunk on alcohol)

Other: Appropriate use of “God bless you” four times, storytelling about witches and how they were burned at the stake, discussions about exorcism and witchcraft, man turns into wolf and back again, spells are cast, decomposed body in bed comes back alive using the spirits of captured children, brotherly love and sacrifice is portrayed

Running Time: 118 minutes
Intended Audience: Older teens and adults

Click HERE for a PRINTER-FRIENDLY version of this review.