Film Review
Sixteen years after he made
L'Ours (1988), a powerful and incredibly popular natural
history drama about a grizzly bear and a stray bear cub, Oscar winning
director Jean-Jacques Annaud ventures over similar ground with
Deux frères, this time
following the exploits of two tiger cubs in the jungles of
French-occupied Indochina. As in
L'Ours, Annaud succeeds masterfully
in humanising the animals whilst animalising the humans in his film, so
that our sympathies do not stray too far from the two stars in his drama,
the two loveable tiger cubs. The film is beautifully shot, with
Jean-Marie Dreujou's breathtaking cinematography filling the screen with the splendour of the
natural world whilst strongly evoking the era in which the film is set.
For children,
Deux frères
undoubtedly makes a mesmerising fable, but for a more critical
adult audience its laboured sentimentality and lack of narrative
substance count against it somewhat. In places, the plot is contrived
to the point of absurdity and
little effort seems to have been spared to make any of the human protagonists
in the drama remotely convincing. By dividing our
attention between the tiger cubs and the far less interesting humans, the film
lacks coherence and you wonder how much more effective it might have been
if the focus had stayed on the tiger cubs for the duration of the story,
so that everything we see is presented from their point of view.
In spite of such shortcomings,
Deux frères
is still an attractive film that is moving and, at times, hilariously funny,
although it will perhaps appeal most to youngsters in need of something
slightly more wholesome than the latest Disney offering.
If we can accept the film for what it is, a simplistic fable encouraging
us all to show greater respect for the natural world, it really does
touch the heart.
© James Travers 2008
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Next Jean-Jacques Annaud film:
Sa majesté Minor (2007)
Film Synopsis
Indochina in the 1920s. In the jungles of Angkor, two tiger cubs
are born amidst the ruins of an ancient temple, an exotic location
which becomes their home. The ruins attract men from the West who
begin to break up the ancient temples and sculptures to sell them in
Europe at great profit. The two cubs are separated - one ends up
in a circus, the other is adopted by the son of a local price.
Will they ever see each other again?
© James Travers
The above content is owned by filmsdefrance.com and must not be copied.