Two Brothers

Synopsis: Early in the 20th century, two tiger cubs Sangha and Kumal live a halcyon existence in the heart of a south-east Asian jungle. That is until antiquities dealerler and statue pillager Aidan McRory (Guy Pearce) invades their home, leading to the shooting of their father and the capture of Kumal, who is sold to a circus. Sangha is a little more fortunate, going to the home of the regional governor, where his son, Raoul (Freddie Highmore), cohabits with his adored pet, until he is forced to give it up to the Royal menagerie, where it is trained to fight. The question on everyone’s lips is “will these adorable stripey balls of fun be reunited when they are big sharp-toothed fighting beasts?”

Annaud, known for his excellent film The Bear, returns to the world of animals for this film ideally suited to animal lovers, families and ecological conservationists. Two Brothers is a glorious ode to tigers and the need to protect these magnificent creatures, and they are the true stars, with their characters far more developed than those of their human co-stars. In fact, the director claims he and his writer deliberately made the humans almost caricatures in order to put the focus fair and square on the tigers. Nearly every human from the circus trainer to the Governor is conveniently stereotyped, and this for me detracted from the film as a whole.

The look of the film in the jungle scenes is spectacular and combined with the cutesy cubs the story gets an almost Disney-like gloss. Most of it was shot in Cambodia, and for travel buffs it’s worth the look on this basis alone with exotic and mysterious temples, ancient stone relics, lush jungles and brooding mountains. However, the sets outside of the jungle, including the circus where Kumal lives and the governor’s home are very stagy.

I’ve always been a fan of Guy Pearce, but here he does little of note, though whether that is the fault of the scripting or him is unclear. Young Freddie Highmore is about the only human actor who stands out. As said, the tigers are the absolute drawcard, with thirty being used in all. Out of the hours of footage that had to be filmed there are so many riveting scenes of both the larger beasts and the adorable cubs, that one marvels at the filmmakers’ and trainers’ patience and skill. And enhancing proceedings there’s a lush score from Stephen Warbeck.

In the film’s closing frames there are explicit pleas for the conservation of tigers, and if films like this, despite their flaws, can raise awareness of ecological issues, even at the price of serving up our full quotient of animal cuteness for the year, then they achieve their aim.

 

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