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TWO
BROTHERS
7/10
aka
Deux Freres : France 2004 : Jean-Jacques ANNAUD : 109 mins
A hit across
the Channel, tiger-tale Two Brothers suffered what one pundit called
"embarrassing" fate at box-offices across the pond, trampled
by behemoths of the Shrek,
Spider-Man and Harry
Potter variety. Perhaps children, at whom the film is principally
aimed, have now become too accustomed to spectacular, computer-boosted
fantasy: because while there are some niftily-integrated special-effects
on show, this is a defiant throwback to older schools of ripping yarn.
The kind penned, in fact, by its principal human character, buccaneering
1920s adventurer/writer Aidan McRory (Guy Pearce).
Plundering
an ancient temple in an unspecified jungle corner of French-ruled Indochina,
McRory disturbs a family of tigers: two parents, two young cubs. The mother
and one cub escape, but the father is killed and the other cub is captured.
After various mishaps, 'Kumal' ends up in a circus, while brother 'Sangha'
becomes the caged pet of the spoiled young local potentate (Oanh Nguyen).
Some months later, the rapidly-growing pair are inadvertently reunited
when brought together to fight in a roman-style amphitheatre for the ruler's
amusement. But when they promptly escape, McRory is charged with hunting
them down...
While this
is an odd career-choice for a man hovering on the edges of Hollywood stardom,
Pearce handles his sparse dialogue with impressive - if impassive - period
solidity. But nearly everything else involving the (beastly) humans is
an embarrassment: wooden actors crudely essay a range of caricatured 'exotic'
stereotypes, their clunky dialogue further mangled by clumsy dubbing and
Stephen Warbeck's distractingly manipulative, horribly intrusive score.
Amazingly,
however, none of this really matters: the fearfully-symmetrical felines
are spellbinding presences - cute in their youth, majestic as young adults.
And Annaud (who could nevertheless learn a thing or two about timing and
grace from his quadrupeds) thankfully relates their remarkable adventures
sans excessive anthropomorphism. His heart is emphatically in the
right place: end titles chillingly inform us that the numbers
of wild tigers has now declined to around 5,000. And the finale (whose
last shot is amusingly - though coincidentally - reminiscent of the closing
image from Gibson's Jesus
H Christ) packs an unexpectedly moving (and lasting) punch. Preparez
vos mouchoirs!
12th July,
2004
(seen 5th June : Vue, Leicester : press show - Cinema
Days event)
click
here for to find out more about tiger conservation
by Neil
Young
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