Don't let the title fool you. This movie "The Brothers Grimm" is not based on the true life events of the Brothers Grimm as I originally thought. Instead it is the product of a great imagination which stems from the mind of Ehren Kruger.

Kruger basis this movie on the fairy tales of The Brothers Grimm. The Brothers (played by Matt Damon and Heath Ledger) encounter in their travels an enchanted forest. "...the brothers (Heath Ledger and Matt Damon, both inexplicably adopting English accents) are con artists who go from town to town posing as conjurers who can protect the local populace from evil spirits. A French general (Jonathan Pryce) catches on to what they're doing and forces them to work for him, on pain of death. But when they're sent to a new town, their old tricks prove useless against an age-old curse that really does haunt the woods." (Author: kylopod (kylopod@aol.com) from Baltimore, MD)Many references to fairy tales (most recorded by the Grimms) are made, but they are slightly different from the actual tales: - Little Red Riding Hood is referred only by her Red Riding Cape, which follows her name in the original German, Rotkäppchen. - The heroic woodsman from "Little Red Riding Hood" is now an evil henchman. - Rapunzel is now an evil queen who locks herself in a tower to escape a plague rather than a princess imprisoned. - The Big Bad Wolf is now a large wolf rather then a diabolical personification. - The Gingerbread Man is now an incarnation of a mud monster. - Jack from Jack and The Beanstalk is changed to Jake to follow along with the brother's names. - Hanzel and Gretel refer to themselves as "Hanz" and "Greta", which are shorter abbreviations of their own names. - Cinderella or the German form Aschenputtel is really the Grimm Brothers as they scrub the floors. The deleted scene in the DVD shows this better. - The evil queen is also the queen from Snow White in her chant about who's the fairest of them all. - All the girls' fingers are pricked as they fall into a deep sleep just like Sleeping Beauty. - As the Woodsman is preparing Angelika for the crypt, he places slippers on her feet, which turn into glass slippers, another reference to Cinderella. Correction: The Woodsman is preparing Sasha, placing a gold ring on her little toe that magically becomes glass slippers, with another reference when the crypts are opening and the girls are clicking their glass slippers together, especially seen in the crypt on which Cavaldi is lying. When preparing Angelika, one only sees him collecting her blood. (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0355295/trivia)



The "reality" of this fairy tale is that it is definitely geared for older teens and adults with its PG-13 rating. It is not a fairy tale made mushy and soft like the Barbie movies. This is action and drama. I found it intense, my older children found it "cool". Its a refreshing twist of the classics.

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