Brotherhood of the Wolf is being called France's answer to Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon. I'm not sure why. The only things the two films have in common are superb martial arts displays and some beautiful cinematography. Otherwise they are nothing alike and it's ridiculous to compare them.
Brotherhood of the Wolf is part action film, part horror, part mystery, part political drama and part love story. If that seems a bit of a mish-mash, well, it sort of is, and it occasionally bogs down. The film is hard to follow in some places---particularly when it's talkative. I don't know that I've ever had as much trouble reading subtitles in my life. I don't know if it's because I understand some of the dialogue and therefore can't focus totally on reading, or if it's just wordy or maybe the font was bad. Whatever the reason, I found it difficult and annoying to try and keep up with the subtitles at the same time as the action. Perhaps that's it. There's a lot of action, you don't want to look away from it to read.
The film is beautiful to look at but the sound can be overwhelming. I'm thinking particularly of the first killing, which is about the most brutal thing I've ever seen on film. It's not gratuitous, it's just incredibly effective at conveying the horror of the attacks. I confess that having seen the trailers I was a little bit worried about the appearance of the beast----I loved An American Werewolf in London until the closing scenes where they put in that hokey, humpy, lumpy, guy-in-a-faux-fur-werewolf suit. The beast in Brotherhood of the Wolf does not disappoint and the reason for it is quite clever, I think.
MINOR SPOILER: Rather than create a fanciful creature that might look hokey, they camouflaged the beast in armor. One can catch glimpses of the beast, but you're never required to look at a stuffed animal or animatronic or CGI monstrosity and buy that it's the real thing. Sometimes the movement is a bit jerky-there's a dogfight/beast-baiting scene that is a bit clunky, but on the whole the beast is very well done.
Our hero is a bit slow to develop...or maybe I was just distracted by his companion, Mani, played by martial arts expert Marc Dacascos. And who wouldn't be distracted? The man is beautiful to look at, fascinating to watch and hardly ever speaks in the film so he's mysterious as well. That's a tough act to compete with particularly if you're a less-good-looking, seeming dilettante like Grégoire de Fronsac - played by Samuel Le Bihan. De Fronsac comes into his own, though and is eventually the more satisfying character even if he's less physically appealing than Mani.
The cast of supporting characters is quite good. They aren't particularly deep characters---but this is an action film even if sometimes it forgets that---and the secondaries are sufficiently well developed to enrich the story without pulling too much focus. It took me more than half the film to figure out why the brother or the love interest looked familiar---Vincent Cassel played the cross dressing Duc d'Anjou in Elizabeth. He was also the voice of Robin Hood in Shrek (note to CalGal)
I'm not sure what else to say about this film. It's marvelous eye-candy. It is sufficiently convoluted to produce some mystery. It's certainly suspenseful and horrifying. The fight sequences are great---and even though it tends to bog down in places it picks back up well. I kept expecting it to be over and then it wouldn't be. I don't know if that's good or bad---I liked it because it meant there was more movie for me to watch, but at the same time I'm aware that it speaks of rather sloppy writing and will bother a lot of people.
So do I recommend it? Absolutely. Some of you will no doubt hate it, but I find it impossible to predict who those folk will be. This is a film that I'll buy when it comes out on DVD if for no other reason than to look at it.
