Grimm

At last we can see a movie that makes us Dutch folks laugh. It's based on a fairy tale of Grimm. It worth watching because I didn't see any better Dutch movie this year. Also I recommend De Noorderlingen en Kleine Teun.

Grimm or Grim? The film starts off as a homage to 'Hansel and Gretal', the Brothers Grimm's popular tale, however in the end the film spirals out in a completely different direction to their story, with many bizarre events along the way. The one constant element in the film however is grimness, which almost is cause to wonder whether the filmmakers were having a little pun with the title, except there is no English at all during the film. The best part of it is almost certainly its unpredictability. The film often defies logic, and makes no sense at all more often than not. While it is not all that satisfying to watch illogical events, the film is somewhat intriguing since anything can happen. It has a dark sense of humour at times too, and strange sexual elements are worked into it. Ultimately, the film is too meandering and the point of it all is hard to grasp. It is often repulsive, the characters are not developed so that they can be easily liked, and the hybridisation of the crime, horror, fantasy and western genres tends to jar an already awkward narrative. There are interesting elements at hand here, and a pulsating music soundtrack helps too. It is quite unusual stuff, however it is actually a good film? It is hard to say.

This is about a passionate loving couple, being brother and sister. It is definitely incestous and rivals of different kinds are killed. It's absurd, it's a little Bunuel sometimes and mostly funny.

Probably this is supposed to be a modern Grimm tale, but including sex. There are no real human beings here, like in Grimm. Like Hansel and Gretl, the brother and sister are alone in the world, with no parents to lean on. They leave Holland and come to a strange dreamlike Spain, where they meet another brother and sister, evil and crazy.

There certainly are scenes here you will remember, but most of all you will remember the dark humour, which makes you laugh at totally wrong places.

In a loose adaptation of "Hansel and Gretel", Dutch siblings Jacob and Marie are abandoned by their parents and eventually make their way to Spain. In Spain, Marie marries surgeon Diego. Everything looks normal at first, but it becomes apparent that Diego might not be quite what he seems, especially after Jacob tries to drag Marie away from him.

What's really neat about "Grimm" is how it plays with the audience. After they leave the Netherlands, you think that the movie's important part has already happened, but you're wrong. Dead wrong. That door in Diego's house gives me the feeling that along with "Hansel and Gretel", there's also a tinge of "Bluebeard" here. And I wonder if that town at the end is the one where they filmed the spaghetti westerns. All in all, this is black comedy at its neatest.

You might propably not like this film at all. I think this is of these films that need the viewer to be open minded. You should not go and view it if you are stuck to reality, or too used to Hollywood blockbusters. If you are one of those who say: No, you cannot go from Holland to Spain with one tank of gasoline, you should never watch this film! However, if you feel that odd things might very well be possible in films, and you don't care about odd things in films, this might be the one for you!

I think viewing it requires a bit of knowledge about fairy tales. Yes, the ones by the GRIMM brothers. The same way as the Coen Brothers knew how to use an old existing story and place it in modern times without loosing the context, Alex van Warmerdam took a story and found how to remake it in a modern way. The same sense of absurd humor, but maybe a little less funny, than o brother were art thou. van Warmerdam, however knew very well how to keep the way of storytelling by the grimm brothers intact. The flickering way of storytelling, combined with a fine feeling of suspense, makes this into one of my best Dutch films recently.