Good concept, poorly executed.

Awesome Movie

Entertaining from beginning to end, it maintains the spirit of the franchise while establishing it's own seal with a fun cast

I cannot think of one single thing that I would change about this film. The acting is incomparable, the directing deft, and the writing poignantly brilliant.

This film has a rather impressive billing, with the version I rented stated "siblings Jacob and Marie embark on a surreal, often night-marrish odyssey." The movie starts out Hansel and Gretel-esquire in that regard, but doesn't move much further. There is a journey to be had, if one is interested in following two characters whom they know little about through different cities where they meet different people. The meetings have very little value to them, however, and the characters often meet conflict that is unexplained. Furthermore, movement between locales is poorly motivated and a unified agenda never sets imposes itself. If these meetings were accompanied by the surrealism that the movie billing suggests, I could have still walked away happily, but unfortunately the surrealism in the meetings is itself limited because much of what could have made a scene eerie is left unaddressed. As far as the comedy, the movie fails to win stars in that department as well. There are two or three hilarious encounters, but most of the comedy is a sort of "why would anybody do that" type of humor. Suits some, obviously. On the whole, the film is built for people with short memory spans, as segments really don't have any connection to each other. This fact is acceptable for the first 40 minutes, but by the 41st, you will certainly ask yourself why you are still watching, hoping that something relevant will occur.I cannot totally smash the movie, however, as the colors were quite vibrant and the journey itself is something that certain watchers might find interesting in its own right. Also, it must be said that Halina Reijn, the lead female, is exciting to watch. Her facial expressions, her candor in front of camera. Of course, she's beautiful. I should also mention that a greater understanding of the Brothers Grimm and their folk tales might lend itself to a greater appreciation of the film. It was clear that this was the case with the 2005 Matt Damon film, but with this one, it is less obvious whether a greater understanding of the tales would make Grimm better.If you're going to watch it, make sure you school yourself on the back story (the Brother's Grimm tales).

On a winter's day a cold-hearted father abandons his son Jacob and daughter Maria in the woods, while they were off looking for firewood. After they can't find their father, Jacob finds a letter in his coat from his mother telling them to go Spain to live with their uncle. While on this journey they bump into some conniving people, also they commit some of devilish crimes and most of the time find themselves in some bizarre circumstances.*Shrug Shoulders* Um… yeah. Well, that's what I felt after this film had finished. It just has some type of spell over you, because what you are seeing on screen is outrageously awkward, highly unpredictable and a striking amount of imagination. The story loosely takes on the Hansel and Gretel fairytale, but goes for a more grownup approach, which is filled with dark humour, incredibly odd adventures and like the title implies a grim nature. Even with all this imagination that went into it, there's something about it that left me undecided what to feel. It's hardly bad, as it had a hypnotic trance on me, but at the end I wasn't hugely impressed, as it seems to run out of steam after the half way mark. Which is a shame, as it had potential with its surreal setup and strange surprises but it becomes ponderously slow and the bizarre nature of it seems to fall by the way side in the third act. The plot… well, there really isn't one, because it's nothing but one comical episode after another and some don't make too much sense or add any real cohesion to proceedings. To make matters worse the characters, especially Jacob and Maria are glazed over and because of that they're hard to like or to connect with. But that doesn't take away from the overall performances, which I thought was generally good. Also other notables worked into the film is a lot of demented and deadpan humour, which either was an hit or a miss and also the sexual context was downright kinky. These generally bleak adventures the two encounter are highly out of the blue and hold a tremendous amount of impact, as the film bursts at the seams with a touch of fairytale magic. Other things that truly kept me glued were the slick cinematography that captured such ravishing scenery from woodlands, to desert terrains and an eerie ghost town. Backing up what we saw on screen was an impressive soundtrack that mixed a lot twang, from country, to rock and some indie. In all, weird… just plain weird! A promising idea that's hypnotically enchanting, but it never reached the great heights like I wished it did.

As mentioned in the title, Grimm is, what I hear, based on the fairy tale of Hansel & Gretel. That sounded good but the movie I watched really had nothing to do with the story I knew. What we get is a decent, yet dark, movie that had some amusing moments.Maria (Halina Reijn) and Jacob (Jacob Derwig) are an adult brother and sister who appears to have a sexual relationship as well. Gotta love the Dutch movie makers. Anyhow, Maria and Jacob are abandoned in the woods early on in the movie by their parents because they could no longer afford to take care of them. After the realization of their abandonment, they calm down and find a note from their mother in Maria's pocket. The note tells them to go to Spain and find their uncle who would be able to take care of them.After a rough trip, they arrive at the address to find their uncle has died, which leaves them with nowhere to go. As you could probably guess, the siblings take to a life of vagrancy & crime to survive until Maria meets Diego (Carmelo Gómez), who kindly takes them in. At this point in the movie, you know that nothing good will ever happen to Maria & Jacob so Diego can't be good.That seems to be the theme of the movie. I do not think they find one person who actually helps them out in the movie. Possibly, this is the resemblance to the fairy tale but, in all honesty, it does not seem similar at all to me, with minor exceptions of being lost in a forest, running into evil people, etc.Overall, it was a decent movie that I felt could have done without the Hansel & Gretel connection. However, I surely would not have been as interested if they did not make that connection. It is what intrigued me to begin with, I suppose, but it is not what held my attention. The dark and sometimes humorous scenes are what kept me watching. This was not as good as I expected, however, I have spent my time in worse ways and on worse movies in the past. 6/10

"Grimm" is a remotely original and well-intended Dutch re-working of the famous Hansel and Gretel fairy-tale, updated with nowadays social issues like violence, sexual perversion and even the mafia-like trade in human organs! Siblings Maria and Jacob are left behind in the Dutch woods by their father and intend to head for Spain, following a written note of their mother. The road to Spain, as well as the actual residence, is a series of obstacles and encounters with weird characters. The first half hour is really good, alternately comical and compassionate with some absurd (but ingenious) ideas, like Jacob's acquaintance with a farmer who forces him to have sex with his corpulent wife. The rest of the film is totally illogical and very, VERY pointless. The two go from Holland to Spain on a moped and, upon arrival, they still have the 10 euros they left! If you think that's nonsense, don't even bother watching the rest of the film... Most of the time, you're wondering why the hell you should care about the dreadful tale of these two weirdos and even the beautiful Spanish settings become boring after a short while. Director Alex Van Warmermeer has the reputation of being a pseudo-artistic and gifted filmmaker, but so far I haven't enjoyed ANY of his films I've seen (others being "Abel" and "De Noorderlingen").