Two Brothers (2004) Critic Reviews

That Annaud and his deft production team create believable dramatic characters without compromising the dignity of the animals they've borrowed as stars -- is the striking (and sometimes unnerving) achievement of a film that also swoops and loops through fairytale hoops.Read the full review

Only the tigers, beautiful and dangerous, maintain their integrity. By staying true to themselves, they make nothing else matter. Read the full review

Combo of some stunning animal direction (courtesy of ace trainer Thierry Le Portier) and exotic period setting somewhere in French colonial Indochina charms when the quadripeds stalk the action but creaks when the bipeds open their mouths.Read the full review

Yes, it's all terribly hokey. But once you accept the premise as a conceit that allows the director, Jean-Jacques Annaud, to offer an intimate, utopian vision of the animal kingdom, Two Brothers succeeds as an inspirational pastorale and passionate moral brief for animal rights and preservation.Read the full review

Honors the power and beauty of these beasts even as it underscores the cultured savagery of the men who are crowding them out. Read the full review

Borderline amazing and borderline dull at the same time.Read the full review

The result is a reassuring fairy tale that will fascinate children and has moments of natural beauty for their parents, but makes the tigers approximately as realistic as the animals in "The Lion King." Read the full review

The result is schizophrenic, an uplifting film that's truly depressing, a movie about cruelty that tries to be fluffy. Read the full review

The tiger footage in Two Brothers would make for a solid nature documentary, but because the animals are shoehorned into a narrative, they've been anthropomorphized to death. Read the full review