Children’s stories come to grotesque life in “The Brothers Grimm,” starring Matt Damon and Heath Ledger as Wilhelm and Jacob Grimm, two brothers who play themselves off as 19th century ghostbusters in French-occupied Germany, only to come face to face with a real supernatural horror.

Many of those expecting to see a frilly and fuzzy conflation of fairy tales of the variety we’ve seen in “Shrek” or any of the Disney movies are sure to be disappointed. Director Terry Gilliam, known for off the wall films like “Time Bandits,” “The Adventures of Baron Munchausen,” and “Twelve Monkeys,” takes a rather morbid stance in this movie, filling it with evil enchantments, stolen children marked for death, a vampiric Queen (Monica Bellucci) who lives in a murderous forest, and fairly cruel circumstances all around. Not the kind of tales we were sent to bed with. It might be worth remembering, however, that what became the Grimm stories were originally gruesome cautionary folktales so Gilliam is probably not as far off the mark as might be believed.

Gilliam’s Monty Python roots show in the rather over the top humor in “Brothers”. In fact the tiny muddy village of Marbaden, where most of the story takes place, and the villagers for that matter, seem lifted right out of “Monty Python and the Holy Grail.” However, as talented as both Ledger and Damon have proven to be in their other works, there’s a curious lack of chemistry for a pair who are onscreen together for most, if not all, of the film. The humor that comes out of their interactions at times gets labored, as though they’re struggling to get to the next punch line. Their nonverbal antics have a little better comic timing. Peter Storemare’s Cavaldi character is exaggerated to the point of being annoying, and it seems that there should be more to Jonathan Pryce’s Delatombe persona, but there isn’t, besides a bad French accent (another Python bit of humor).

Luckily, though, we have the amazing scenery, intense action sequences, and generally well-executed fantasy of it all to lose ourselves in, and that’s where this film is strong. If you’re fortunate enough to have a good background in the Grimm stories (and that’s really who this film is for), you’re in luck because Gilliam weaves the various elements and characters of many of the different Grimm tales into this film, much in the same way “Shakespeare in Love” incorporated the many possible sources for William Shakespeare’s plays. The scenery is lush and the effects are eye candy, and despite whatever struggles you might have getting through the murky plot, the film is still worth seeing in the theater.

COURTESY PHOTO

Caption: Heath Ledger (left) and Matt Damon play the eponymous fairy tale spinners in Terry Gilliam’s “The Brothers Grimm.”