“Two Brothers” (Universal Pictures)
Several years ago Jean-Jacques Annaud created a film entitled “The Bear.” It was a fascinating look at life in the wild and was remarkable for its photography and beauty. Now Annaud has directed a new film “Two Brothers.” It too deals with life in the wilds and with nature, but this time tells the story of two tigers that are separated from their parents and raised in different locales until they are reunited by fate.
Guy Pearce plays Aidan McRory, a hunter and adventurer who seeks treasure in the tombs and decayed palaces of Asia. On an expedition he stumbles upon a tiger family – mother, father and two cubs. The male tiger is killed and McRory takes one of the cubs with him. This cub eventually ends up with a local circus.
The other cub is found by a small boy named Raoul (Freddie Highmore) who takes it home. It stays with him but eventually his parents present it to the governor of the country. The tigers are raised apart from each other but eventually are brought face to face to do battle in an arena.
This simple story takes almost two hours to tell – two long hours. The beauty of the scenery is impressive and the animals are photographed so that they have almost human traits. The human actors are negligible, even Pearce who should be better.
The film is rated PG for mild violence.
It is hard to call this a children’s film as the movie has several deaths of animals in the script. Plus the movie is so long and uneventful that most smaller children would be bored – as would some of the adults.
The two tigers are the stars of the movie but even they can not prod this movie into action. It just moseys and meanders its way along and eventually ends. Nothing much happens, nothing much is seen, nothing much is anticipated.
In this film the wild tigers roar but the movie is a bore. There’s no way to get around it, it is just a tedious film. A beautiful and sweet one, but a boring one just the same.
I scored “Two Brothers” a striped 4 out of 10.
