'Two Brothers' is cat's meow

By Jack Garner
Gannett News Service

TWO BROTHERS (PG) Three Stars (Good) Jean-Jacques Annaud (of "The Bear") returns to nature for a more conventional children's fable about two tigers separated as kittens and reunited years later. Guy Pearce heads the human cast, though the cats steal the show. Universal Pictures, 109 minutes.

Director Jean-Jacques Annaud took my breath away in 1989 with his live-action nature drama, "The Bear." His potent blend of animals and humans was unprecedented and the star performance by Bart the Bear remains the best ever by an animal in a film.

Annaud's return to nature after "Seven Years in Tibet" and "Enemy at the Gate" is a cause for celebration. But don't get too excited, for while "The Bear" transcended the nature genre to become a one-of-a-kind experience, the tiger saga "Two Brothers" is a much more conventional and youth-oriented blend of Disney, National Geographic and Rudyard Kipling.

Annaud's story, co-written with Alain Godard, applies the separated-at-birth concept to the world of tigers in the colonial Southeast Asia of a century ago. Two tiger kittens are separated by tragic circumstances after their parents are attacked. The tiger kitten called Kumal is shipped off to a low-rent Asian circus that is far more like Stromboli's in "Pinocchio" than Ringling Brothers. The animal is mistreated, wasting away his days in a tiny cage and pushed into jumping through rings of fire.

The other kitten — Sangha — becomes the pet of the rich son of the regional French governor. But when he becomes too much for the household, he's given to the private menagerie of a native prince.

Now grown, the tigers eventually find themselves matched against each other like gladiators in a ring, where their fighting is supposed to provide entertainment. Will they remember they're brothers? As in "The Bear," the animals have human co-stars. Most notable is Guy Pearce (of "L.A. Confidential" and "Memento") as a world-famous hunter and explorer, known for the ancient relics he ransacks and the beasts he kills. But, of course, even he becomes charmed by the tigers.

But while "The Bear" was an admirable simple, straightforward drama, "Two Brothers" has more the flavor of a childhood fable, and provides a bit too much screen time to humans who are nowhere near as interesting as the tigers.

The animals are powerful, graceful creatures, well worth the camera's attention. Annaud puts them through impressive paces, with the best sequence involving an adult tiger chasing a truck, jumping on board and trying to open a cage taking one of her kittens away from her. Though there's nothing in "Two Brothers" to match the emotional range of "The Bear," Annaud and his crew accomplish a lot with only about a minute of faked puppet footage in the whole film.

The settings also are spectacular, with most of the film being shot at the incredible temples of Angkor in Cambodia, an exotic setting that seems a perfect home for these beautiful, majestic creatures.

Rated PG, with mild violence.