Grimm Love DVD Movie Review
Grimm Love DVD Movie Review
Convicted of man-slaughter
|
Note to self: Never, ever accept a dinner invitation from director Martin Weisz. His two feature films to date are about cannibalism. However, the difference between the movies is like steak tar-tare is to burnt rump-roast: The Hills Have Eyes 2 was a gross-out hurling horror flick going for the popcorn crowd, while Grimm Love is based in reality and the subject matter treated with a great deal of respect and finesse.
Inspired by the appalling Armin Meiwes consensual cannibalism case, but with names changed to… protect?... the guilty, Grimm Love is a movie that's almost as notorious as its topic. While it did win awards at the Sitges and PiFan film festivals, it was banned in Germany for three years after Meiwes himself sued the filmmakers and it never did get a foothold here in the U.S. It awaits possible limited release in theaters through Fangoria's FrightFest, and will be on DVD everywhere September 28, 2010.
Grimm Love is hard to categorize — it's not quite the half-baked indie ala Last Supper, nor does it have the feel of a big studio release like Hannibal Rising. It's somewhere in the cinematic soup, shall we say. It's an accomplished offering, but there are a few problems with the pacing and what I imagine are directorial choices (a back-and-forth plot devices, a dual narrative, plus flashbacks and imaginary moments).
So let's eat the vegetables before getting to dessert. Here's what it's about: Grimm Love is the fictionalized account of a graduate student doing her thesis on an actual true crime of cannibalism which occurred in Germany in 2001. Keri Russell (whose famous show Felicity I've never actually seen, but loved her in Waitress… oh, the irony) plays Katie, while Thomas Kretschmann as Oliver (Wanted) and Thomas Hubner as Simon (German movies you've probably never heard of) flesh out the other two main roles.
Katie's story is told in the here and now, and we never get to know her past or back story. On the other hand, her musings on the cannibal and his victim explore them practically back to the time they were zygotes. Everyone gets their equal time in the sun — and each is portrayed with admirable amounts of shades of gray. As Katie learns the details of the situation (Oliver advertised for a man willing to be slaughtered and eaten, found one, and then videotaped the scenario), her hold on sanity is shaken.
Kudos to screenwriter T.S. Faull for creating complex characters who, while their actions and reactions may not always be relatable, come together like the pieces of a jigsaw puzzle to show a cohesive picture in the end. It would have been very easy to make Katie ghoulish; Oliver murderous; and Simon stupid — but they're more than just the sum of their parts.
A lot of this has to do with the acting. Russell, Kretschmann, and Grombeck could not have been better-cast, and it's obvious they are not only comfortable in their roles, they committed fully. Each has to play out scenes that couldn't have looked easy on paper — selling it on celluloid is that much more difficult, but there isn't a single unintended moment of humor in Grimm Love.
I think highly of the film and at this halfway point in the year, it's definitely a contender for the Indie/DVD Top 10 of 2010 list. However, that's not to say I don't have a few issues with it. There is so much going on plot-wise and with so many characters, that less may have been more. To me, if things were different, it wouldn't really matter how they decided to split it — I would have liked a story about a grad student with a little bit of the cannibals thrown in, just as well as I would have liked a story about the crime with a few Katie-interstitials. As it was, the perfect "one for you, one for me" divvying made the movie seem longer than it actually was.
Also, I did not like the way the flashbacks were handled. Flashbacks are often problematic for storytellers (look at all the kinds there are, just season-to-season on the TV show Cold Case!). How should they be..? Black and white? Vignette? Sepia? Old, scratchy film? Well, the latter is how they decided to go in Grimm Love and it didn't work at for me — it was too spot-on, making it look as though those childhood events were actually filmed. Maybe it was the best tie-in they could think of, since some of the movie does revolve around the filming of the… um… filet-tio. (Pretty disgusting stuff — supposedly in real life, the law enforcement officers who viewed the Meiwes tape had to undergo psychiatric counseling.)
So, there were some stylistic choices I really didn't care for — but there were many I loved. Such as the choice of Jonathan Sela as the DP (I follow his films — I've seen and was visually wowed by The Omen, Max Payne, The Midnight Meat Train, Powder Blue, and most recently, Law Abiding Citizen). Some of the sets (Oliver's butcher-basement) and locations (a gymnasium pool with window-walls is especially lovely) are noteworthy, as is the makeup (Russell's eye-shadow changes over the course of the film, reflecting her darkening state of mind) and the music (somber, but never tedious).
Sort of a Hansel & Gretel meet Hannibal Lecter mish mash of psychology and horror, Grimm Love may not be perfect — but it's pretty unforgettable.
= = =
Reviewed by Staci Layne Wilson
Latest User Comments:
| Pretentious and crashingly dull | |
| This movie has been available here for approx 2 yrs and it has not done squat business on dvd. I respectfully disagree with your review of your film. Film review is quite subjective of course. The photography is wonderful but the plotting and pacing move at a snails pace. The acting is workmanlike but nothing special. To me its nothing special. | |
| 07-07-2010 by urdevil | discuss |