Moving trees, kidnapped girls, pompous French men – from a first glance, “The Brothers Grimm” seems to be a jam-packed, action-filled movie. Yet, if it’s so full, why does it leave the viewer feeling empty afterwards?

Sadly, the fraternal film combines so many unrelated elements that it is weak in all of them, resulting in a viewing experience that is lacking.

At the beginning of the film, we are introduced to the title characters, two gentlemen who are not fairy tale authors, but rather con men.

After a positively chilling scene in which the pair saves a village from an evil “witch,” (did you note the sarcasm?) we learn that the boys travel from village to village making fake rescues. They in fact have a couple of chums who masquerade as whatever malicious monster legend haunts the area.

But alas! Drama arrives, as it often does, in the form of Frenchmen. These strutting, spitting, painfully stereotypical foreigners drag our protagonists away from their lives of deception into a forest filled with – who would have guessed? Real magic.

What makes this film (prepare yourself for the pun) so grim (oh ho ho!) is its lack of self-awareness. The movie cannot make up its mind about which genre it belongs in, jumping back and forth between tense fight scenes and comical misplacings of toupees. The film often tries to takes itself seriously and poke fun at itself at the same time, doing the latter with scenes that seem to be bad on purpose. Too many ingredients are crammed into a brief film.

The plot of the film is also somewhat muddled, and for that same reason the film as a whole is deficient. The mystical fairy tale that the brothers find themselves immersed in is a mixture of many actual fairy tales – too many fairy tales.

Superfluous details are added to the intricate plot and almost all of them go unexplained. Rather than include so much, the film would have been wiser to have a less intricate storyline.

Although this movie is très horrible, it is watchable; “The Brothers Grimm” is never dull, only stupid. I would highly recommend watching this film – when it comes out on television. And only if there is nothing else on. And perhaps your car has broken down, leaving you stranded in your house. At that time, watch away, my friends!