As far as fairy-tale-mixing movies go, “The Brothers Grimm” covers all the bases, but in the end, unfinished concepts and unnecessary grotesque humor leave the viewer confused.

Directed by Terry Gilliam, the only American member of the British comedy group Monty Python, “The Brothers Grimm” reflects much of the Monty Python humor; an entire village spitting at the mention of a certain woman’s name, and worse spoken French than in “the Holy Grail”.

The movie focuses on the Grimm brothers, who are known for recording some of today’s most famous fairy tales. The brothers, Jake (Heath Ledger) and Will (Matt Damon), have been traveling village to village pretending to rid them of evil and collecting rewards for it.

Their bluff is called out by the French government, however, when General Delatombe (Jonathan Pyrce) threatens to execute the brothers if they cannot recover 10 girls who disappeared in an enchanted forest. The General sends along Italian assassin, Cavaldi (Peter Stormare), who can quickly be identified as the comic relief in the film.

Once they arrive at the girls’ town, the brothers enlist the help of a local, Angelika (Lena Headey), to show them around the forest. A love triangle forms between Jake, Angelika, and Will that remains unresolved throughout the film. In the forest, the three discover a tower that, according to ancient myth, holds a beautiful queen (Monica Bellucci) in search of eternal life. The brothers’ adventures take them through the mischievous forest numerous times, but no more can be said without revealing the ending.

The plot seems whole, but to the viewer, the concepts are underdeveloped. For example, one of the “big secrets” is about who is abducting these girls in the forest. The audience is not teased with the mystery enough to actually care when the truth comes out. In fact, the answer seems so obvious that a viewer could guess the kidnapper’s identity by the second “subtle” clue. Also, the love triangle seems to exist for no reason. There is no scene where one brother gives up or Angelika seems confused by their courting, or any other scenes that would better develop the concept. In the end, that piece of the plot loses the viewers’ interest as well because it is too confusing and never rewarding.

Jake and Will display sibling rivalry which, although a familiar concept, loses it’s charm since the brothers seem too old to still fight. Jake, the younger brother, is awkward and nerdy. He believes in every folk tale he has memorized, while Will plays the realist in the pair and takes whatever he can get. Some aspects of their relationship are genuinely entertaining, as illustrated in one scene where Jake is climbing the tower in the forest and Will, who is down below, says, “Life without Jake, it can only be a matter of minutes now.” The brotherly love, and hate, works because it gets a good laugh out of the audience, but the viewer would expect men of their age to be past those childish squabbles.

Although Gilliam’s dark humor comes out, it seems sparse compared to “Monty Python and the Holy Grail.” If there had been more of his humor throughout the movie, the vulgar jokes would have blended in with the rest of the movie; instead they linger as though Gilliam was held back, but refused to take all of his humor out of the film.

Although the film is about the Grimm brothers’ inspiration for the fairy tales they would later write, this movie is not all smiles and sunshine. Numerous characters die in somewhat gruesome ways, torture chambers show up more than once in this movie, and there is a menacing, old sorceress who will send chills up your spine. Parents are advised not to bring young children to this PG-13 movie on the context that it is about fairy tales.

“The Brothers Grimm” could have been a brilliant movie, but the viewer cannot get past the confusing, unfinished concepts or the fact that Gilliam left either too much or not enough of his humor scattered through the movie. If you are good at inferring a lot of information, you may enjoy this movie, but if you are not, prepare to be confused.