Have I missed the post on this? All I’ve seen is the accents thread.
Went to see this yesterday afternoon. I and the 10 other people in the theater were pretty much underwhelmed. The movie was… meh, unfortunately. I think it suffered significantly from a poorly written script, as the concept and visual execution were intriguing and fairly good, respectively. The acting leaned toward the chewing end of the scale (especially in the case of the female lead, who annoyed the piss out of me) which really I found somewhat surprising for a Gilliam film (just look at the performance he wrenched from J. Pryce in Brazil as a contrast). Rumor has it the studio didn’t like the first cut of the film, and extensive changes were made. Perhaps that’s where a lot of the- pardon the pun- magic was lost.
There <i>were</i> two or three scenes that actually made me look away from the screen, which is highly unsual, so I have to at least pat them on the back for that.
I saw it, and my reaction was pretty much the same as yours – I posted about it in my LJ here. To sum up: I lay a LOT of the blame on the script; I know Gilliam had to make some last-minute changes, which resulted in quite a few nonsensical scenes that made you feel that there was something you didn’t know that made the scene/character make sense. A friend commented that it was like what watching Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban must have been like without having read the book.
It took too long to get going, and the script put its a big character conflict too early in: we can’t be expected to be invested in the brothers fighting when all we’ve seen of them is quips and quirkiness!
There was some serious misdirection going on with Jonathan Pryce’s character, I felt – why include the huge, anvil-y, “THIS IS A PLOT CLUE!” hall of mirrors if it wasn’t going to be tied in with the Mirror Queen?
Once the Brothers G got into the forest and plot started happening, it was all right, and sometimes very creepy.
I would have liked to see more fairytales-as-archetype and not just window dressing (“It’s a young woman in a red cape, GET IT?”). Something more Into the Woods-y than (dare I say it?) Van Helsing.
What a surprise when you considering this gem was penned by, Ehren Kruger, who wrote:
The Skeleton Key (2005)
The Ring Two (2005)
The Ring (2002)
Impostor (2002)
Reindeer Games (2000)
Well, this movie did have its share of wood tentacles…
Although the script was very flawed, I still greatly enjoyed this movie. I could tell that most of my fellow audience felt completely alienated throughout it though…as if they were expecting a straight up fairy tale story NOT directed by Gilliam.
My daughter burst into tears She was alright by the end of it but it was a bit freakier than she thought it would be. The Ring type scariness is ok with her, some of this was a bit over the top for her.
I was laughing my ass off which did not help matters at the time
A good director can often overcome even the most flawed of scripts, and I think we can agree that Gilliam, when on his game, is a good director.
fusoya, TWO people laughed at that scene. Granted, the audience was teeny-tiny, but still… I was a bit :o to realise that I was one of the two gigglers.
I put this as one of the 10 worst movies I’ve ever seen. Not artistic, not funny, not creepy, not visually interesting, characters sucked, acting sucked (and I like Matt Damon), story sucked and wasn’t developed well. I’ve never looked at my watch more times during a movie or been so bored.
All this coming from a guy who likes fairy tales, likes quirky movies, and can generally find something nice to say about any movie. Having said that, I will at least say that one part tripped some deep memory circuits and I still haven’t been able to put my finger on what they are:
In the scene where the little girl is drawing water from the well and ends up creating a golem that steals her eyes and face - what was that all about? What story is that from?
I think I’m going to take a pass on this one. Since the first previews came out, it’s looked like phoned-in Gilliam at his worst. I also suspect he just did the film to finance Tideland, the “real” new Gilliam film.
I enjoyed the movie. I went in with fairly low expectations, considering the bad review and trouble Gilliam had with the studio, but I had fun.
The script was severly flawed, but I thought the actors seemed to be trying, and the visuals were very good. So my thoughts in all are that it was far from the best Gilliam film, but even a bad Gilliam film is better than most films.
…from The Gingerbread Man. After it absorbs her, it takes a bit out of its own hand, says, “Mm, I taste good!” then runs away yelling, IIRC, “You can’t catch me, I’m the gingerbread man!” It also looked like a tarry version of Shrek’s GM.
Personally, I like it for the most part. Visually, it was much more effective and creepy than I expected. The acting and script were servicable, and it was an enjoyable movie and a not-horrible take on the titular characters’ fairy tales.
I’m a Gilliam mark and will probably see the movie next weekend. I don’t follow entertainment news, so I’ve heard nothing about Gilliam vs. “The Studio”, although that does seem to be a problem with many of his films. Can anyone give me The Straight Dope® on the friction?
I THOUGHT it might be the gingerbread man, and the deep memory circuits being activated in my brain suggested that the real gingerbread story was much darker than what we usually think of. However, this morning I tried to Google the story, and all I came up with was the one where a fox tricks the G-Man into accepting a ride across a river on the fox’s back. Eventually the river gets so high that the G-Man is forced to ride on the fox’s snout and the fox then snaps him up. None of that fit with what was in the movie. Do you know if there is another story I’m missing? Or did Gilliam just take the G-Man character and use him in a non-traditional story?
I to thought the G man must be darker than I’d neem told.
I know that Cinderella’s sisters were hacking off pieces of their feet to make their slippers fit. I reckon the Grimm version was a bit different for most fairy tales.
She was alright by the end of it but it was a bit freakier than she thought it would be. The Ring type scariness is ok with her, some of this was a bit over the top for her.
