Theresa Corvino - Brothers Grimm

Brothers Grimm
Terry Gilliam
2005

Brother Grimm is a story based around Will and Jacob Grimm, conmen pretending to be monster catchers escapading across Germany. This backfires when they are forced to confront a real magical force in order to save a town from the curse of an evil witch.
The casting of Matt Damon and Heath Ledger in this movie is perfect. They are completely unexpected and the opposite of type casting. Heath Ledger, being a method actor, must have studied his role well because it worked for him. His neurotic performance was completely on par. His performance allows him to describe his character through exposition less because he was able to display that, including incidents in his past that created ticks.
The setting created by Terry Gilliam completely sells the world and the story. It’s dark and gloomy nature sets the tone from the first shot and maintains the feeling until the end. Many of the sets are crooked and rigid like a Tim Burton set that makes it seem slightly unrealistic like a fairy tale but also ominous like the mood that he was creating. Most of the characters wore only muddy browns and blacks to further create a dark feeling. The female lead is the only one to wear red because she is the only character that truly fights with all she believes against evil witch.
Terry Gilliam created a world that is, at what time, very believable and historically accurate due to the environment and the way the minor character act, allowing the main characters to allow more ridiculous because the minor characters and setting sell the realism of the story.