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Thankfully, Annaud doesn’t use digital technology to make the animals talk or burst into Alan Menken songs. The tigers who star in this film prove to be photogenic and expressive enough to tug at viewers’ hearts by pretty much being themselves.

The people, on the other hand, are broadly drawn or sometimes sketchy in this film, but that’s not really problem because this tale of two young tigers in early 20th century Southeast Asia doesn’t need them much.

We get to follow Kumal and Sangha when they are cuddly little cubs under the watchful eyes of their parents. The family lives in the ruins of an ancient temple that the jungle is slowly reclaiming.

Their peaceful existence is shattered when a famous hunter named Aidan McRory (Guy Pearce) comes to the temple to swipe some of the statues. The parents don’t take kindly to the trespassers, and one even dies defending a cub.

Each of the tiger siblings winds up being a captive. McRory sells Kumal to the cruel owners for a cut rate circus, and the local French administrator Normandin (Jean Claude Dreyfus) and his wife (Philippine Le Roy-Beaulieu) and son (Freddie Highmore) adopt Sangha as a pet. Unfortunately, the young tiger proves to be a lousy housecat (let’s just say the home’s furnishings and the family dog could be a bit safer without him). Instead, he winds up being part of the egotistical local Prince’s (Oahn Nguyen) menagerie.

The bonds between Kumal and Sangha reach beyond the bars of their cages, so that even when fate deals them a bad hand, they still manage to triumph. The story by Annaud and his regular writing partner Alain Godard ("Enemy at the Gates," "Quest for Fire"]) is pretty simple, but Annaud’s attention to his feline protagonists makes their situations compelling. When one of them is isolated or in danger, the tiger’s emotions become contagious. Even as big scary adults, Kumal and Sangha retain a sort of cuddly charm.

Apparently Annuad achieved these vivid animal performances, not by CGI trickery but sheer patience. Most of the movie was shot in High Definition video, which can usually hold more footage and give a filmmaker instant results.

While the picture sometimes looks grainier than most film photography, it enables the filmmaker to shoot as long as it takes for the unpredictable tigers to perform as intended. Thankfully, cinematographer Jean-Marie Dreujou, who also lensed Patrice Leconte’s ravishingly beautiful "The Girl on the Bridge," can still manage to create stunningly opulent images.

While the film looks great, Annaud and Godard shortchange the human performers. Only Pearce’s McRory seems remotely dynamic or three-dimensional. Normandin and the Prince are a bit stereotypical. To his credit, Annaud realizes the tigers are generally more interesting.

By nature, tigers can be scary creatures, so "Two Brothers" might not be for very young or sensitive children. Nonetheless, Annaud has crafted a classy and engaging film that doesn’t subject viewers to product placement or needless scatological humor. It’s appalling that such a charming little flick didn't do better at the American box office. Annaud clearly loves the animals and the exotic world they inhabit, so it’s easy to return the affection to his film.

link directly to this review at https://www.efilmcritic.com/review.php?movie=10130&reviewer=382
originally posted: 12/15/04 16:13:29
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