GRIMM LOVE (aka BUTTERFLY: A GRIMM LOVE STORY, 2006)

Streaming on Tubi!
Directed by Martin Weisz
Written by T.S. Faull
Starring Keri Russell, Thomas Kretschmann and Thomas Huber

GRIMM LOVE is a dark and dour film that really does push the envelope of good taste, but I believe that the characters are presented in such a stark manner that the filmmaker makes it very hard for the viewer to care about any them. Turns out, it is a twisted kind of love story about two people who meet each other over the internet and end up finding a connection.

This film is just like YOU’VE GOT MAIL except instead of Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan flirting online with one another, you have a man who wants to be a cannibal flirting online with a man who wants to be eaten. Oh, and Randy Neuman doesn’t sing a snappy song for the soundtrack here, either.

Maybe a Randy Neuman song might have helped GRIMM LOVE, though, because the mood was so dank throughout that I felt depressed after the credits rolled. Sure it is a disgusting subject, but the film is set in such a downer of a world where no one smiles, the streets are filled with puddles, horses are shot and dogs run away on a regular basis. OK, I’m exaggerating about the horses and dogs, but man, does this film need a Red Bull and some Paxil.

The plot is pretty plodding as Kerri Russell plays Katie, who is doing a research about this well documented case. The film itself is inspired by the real story of the “Cannibal of Rotenberg”, Armin Meiwes. Meiwes met a man over the internet and agreed to eat him. After his arrest, a whole subculture of fetishists were brought to life focusing on biting and eating human flesh for sexual pleasure. Dark stuff, I know. And it makes for one of the dourest films of the year.

Surprisingly, Kerri Russell does a decent job all gothed out as a woman slowly reliving the two mens’ final days of normal life. She visits their homes and workplaces and researches their internet history, reading their transcriptions back and forth to one another, all with a sick fascination. This ain’t no FELICITY episode I’ve ever seen. Anyone looking for the further adventures of that curly haired cutie should look far, far from here. That said, Russell has very little to do here but wander around wide-eyed and inquisitive and react to the horrific things she encounters in her investigation. She doesn’t even interact with folks, other than a brief dinner with friends who discuss her weird fascination with the case in the beginning. Her story is not important here as her reaction to a mysterious tape showing the act of cannibalism between the two men is somewhat over the top given her fascination with the act up to that point. There basically is no resolution to Russell’s character or the film. It just ends with the act that’s been described being played out. Because everything is so bleak, it is hard to relate in any way but disgust as Thomas Kretschmann (playing Oliver the biter) sinks his teeth into Thomas Huber (playing Simon the bitee) in the last act.

There is no surprise or shock–just events playing out exactly the way things were explained with our emotional connection to this story (Russell’s character) not making sense along the way. Director Martin Weisz gave us the remake of THE HILLS HAVE EYES 2, which itself was bleak and dire. The theme continues in this film. It plays out much more like a documentary, stating cold facts rather than trying to entertain or offer up identifiable characters. Things get graphic toward the end, but the first hour of this film is filled with so many monotonous lingering shots and depressing situations featuring the leads that it’s hard to maintain interest for that long. The final moments are intense, but by that time, I was just looking forward to the whole thing ending.

Check out the trailer here!!