The Brothers Grimm (2005)
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Two con artists posing as exorcists in 19th-century Germany must face a genuine fairy-tale curse.
The story
In 1811, Will and Jake Grimm are traveling con artists who use Jake's extensive knowledge of folklore to fool people into believing they exorcise the supernatural in French-occupied Germany. After being captured by an Italian torturer, they are tasked by a French General to investigate the mysterious disappearance of several young girls from the village of Marbaden. The brothers, along with a local fur trapper named Angelika, venture into a nearby forest containing a mysterious tower. They must navigate a landscape of genuine magic and ancient curses to find the missing girls before the situation spirals out of control.
Full plot (contains spoilers)
In 1811, con artists Will and Jake Grimm use folklore to pose as exorcists in French-occupied Germany. They are tasked by General Delatombe to investigate the disappearance of girls from Marbaden. They team up with Angelika, a fur trapper whose sisters are missing. They discover a tower in the forest where a Thuringian Queen is trapped by a magic mirror. During their investigation, a horse steals a girl, and a mud monster attacks another. Jake discovers the girls are part of a ritual to restore the Queen's youth. Delatombe eventually beheads their assistants and orders the forest burned. Angelika's father, a huntsman under the Queen's spell, is revealed. Angelika becomes the Queen's final sacrifice. Will is seduced by the Queen and takes control of the huntsman, while Jake smashes the mirror. The Queen is killed, the girls are rescued, and the village is saved. The film ends with a piece of the Queen's reflection still remaining in a shard of the mirror.
- First release year
- 2005
- Runtime (minutes)
- 118
- Production countries
- United States; United Kingdom; Czech Republic
- Original languages
- English; French; Deutsch; Italian
- Directors
- Terry Gilliam
- Writers
- Ehren Kruger · writer; Terry Gilliam · writer; Tony Grisoni · writer
- Cast and characters
- Matt Damon · Will Grimm; Heath Ledger · Jake Grimm; Lena Headey · Angelika; Peter Stormare · Cavaldi; Jonathan Pryce · Delatombe; Monica Bellucci · unknown
- Themes
- folklore; magic; sacrifice
- Tone and mood
- Gothic; dark comedy
- Premise and plot tags
- con artists; fairy tales; exorcism
- Source material / true-story basis
- Grimms' Fairy Tales
- Reception
- The film received mixed reviews from critics, with some praising its visual imagery and others criticizing its narrative structure.
- Reported review scores
- Rotten Tomatoes · score: 38% · scale: percentage · review count: 182; Metacritic · score: 51 · scale: 100 · review count: 36
- Production trivia
- The film served as inspiration for the manga series Blue Exorcist.; The production was filmed entirely in the Czech Republic.; The film's budget was between $80 and $88 million.
Genres
Film metadata comes from the open sources listed in Credits & Contact. Catalogue details may be incomplete.
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