For all of you morbid Fairy Tale lovers out there, it has finally happened! The infamous duo Grimm has at long last hit the silver screen – and boy did they hit it hard.

So you’ve probably read a few mixed reviews about this fantastic flick. They’re all right – it’s both ingenious and lame.

Have I confused you enough? That’s because that was my initial reaction after watching the movie. With a combination of surreal scenery, and a large number of jumbled morbid tales, I was, no doubt, enthralled. Matt Damon and Heath Ledger share an excellent sense of brotherly chemistry, while the classic “Evil Queen” (played by the beautiful Monica Bellucci), makes for delicious eye-candy. And we can’t forget the aesthetics of the “olde-tyme” costumes and fantastic, enchanted surroundings.

But then comes the point where writer Ehren Kruger finds it necessary to ruin a magical moment with a bit of forced comedy and an annoyingly unnatural love triangle between the two brothers and Angelika (Lena Headey) , the intriguing village tom-boy/outcast in search of her two missing sisters and father. It is here, in the desolate little town near the enchanted forest, where our story begins. The Brothers, who are really just a team of self-proclaimed con artists, are infamous for their worldly travels and exorcisms, ridding village after village of unwanted vampires, witches, banshees and ghosts. They go about their business, tricking all kinds of towns and countries out of their money by leading each region to think that it is haunted by some unwanted supernatural being. But soon the Brothers stumble across the French-inhabited part of Germany where they are caught and sentenced to a grueling, torturous death. Their only bail – to find ten missing little girls in a distant French town that is said to be haunted by an evil enchantress in control of a magical, nearby wood.

Can they make bail? If the movie were to actually follow the original Brothers Grimm, the answer would be a definite NO. But seeing as Hollywood got her slimy hands on it, anything is possible. The direction of the movie is what threw me off. As an avid reader, and fan of the real Brothers Grimm, I understand that to incorporate all of their terrors and morbidities into a single flick would be quite a challenge. But this conjunction was so sloppily done, I was quite disappointed. In other words- this movie- although aesthetically pleasing – just wasn’t gruesome enough for me. I doubt if it would be for anyone else who read the tales growing up, or even anyone who read them recently. The director’s approach to filming this movie was more comedic than dark and twisted. True, the Grimm’s approach was somewhat funny, in its cynical viewpoint. But this movie lacks the element of ironic pessimism – unless if you count the scene with the cute little fluffy kitty*. In the end, the movie is worth watching, just as long as you come in with low expectations of anything to do with the original stories. Needless to say, I’m sure if the Brothers actually did see this movie (perhaps a mockery to their works); they’re turning in their graves at this very moment.