(Review originally written at 29 December 2007)
Director Alex van Warmerdam is known for his own sort of surreal and absurd style of film-making, that however never feel too artistic or forced, which makes all of his movies also perfectly watchable for most large public groups. I'm not too sure if this entirely also goes for "Grimm". Yes, it's an entertaining movie if you just sit back and relax but unfortunately it also isn't a very well constructed movie.
The movie would often change style as the movie progresses. The movie begins as a modern fairytale, with some of the generic elements in it. It however jumps too fast from scene to scene. It doesn't always feel like it's wrapping up things properly. Then the movie almost suddenly stops and slows down once the two characters get to Spain. The movie becomes an entirely different one again.
The middle part and till some extend would had made a fairly good movie on its own but keeping in the mind the first part of the movie it makes you realize how utterly pointless that part was, since it doesn't really connect with the rest of the movie. That's why I simply can't regard this movie as a successful one. It's way too disjointed all.
I can definitely understand van Warmerdam's intentions with this movie but it just doesn't all translate to the screen very well. He probably thought he was making his "El Topo".
No matter how hard Halina Reijn tries, she and Jacob Derwig, who play brother and sister in this movie, just don't have much chemistry together. I blame Jacob Derwig for this, since his acting seems to be a bit below average at points. I just never have been a too big fan of his acting abilities. The movie is filled with some other well known Dutch and I suppose also fairly well known Spanish actors, in some small as well as some bigger roles. Some are well cast, others obviously aren't.
The movie is good looking, with professional cinematography. Also very little wrong with the actual directing of it all, they just didn't had the best material to work with in the long run.
Has some quality but it just isn't the best watchable movie.
5/10
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