Two Brothers

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Movie Review by Neils Hesse

Starring: Kumal, Sangha, Guy Pearce, Jean-Claude Dreyfus, Freddie Highmore, Oanh Nguyen

Director: Jean-Jacques Annaud

Our journey begins at the early part of the 20th century, deep in the jungles of Southeast Asia – the realm of the tiger. Two tigers meet and mate to produce two male cubs, “two brothers”. The first few days of life for these brothers are full of fun and wonders as they begin to explore their surroundings but this doesn’t last long when their normal existence is tragically disrupted by the arrival of a famous yet reluctant hunter called Aidan McRory (Guy Pearce). He is forced to kill the father of the two cubs and in the confusion that follows the mother manages to escape with only one of them.

McRory discovers the other cub and takes it with him but becomes separated from the cub which is sold to a circus. Despite a daring attempt by its mother to release her cub from its cage on a moving truck, the poor cub ends up in the circus. Named Kumal by the ringleader of the circus, he is destined to become a trained entertainer. Meanwhile the Tigress is hunted herself by the prince’s hunting party causing her to be separated from her other cub. He too is found, this time by a young boy Raoul (Freddie Highmore). He is named Sangha and lives the life of a privileged pet for a while until he nearly kills the family dog. Sangha is then handed over to the prince’s animal trainer where he is destined to be turned into a wild unflinching animal.

A year passes then the prince decides to have a tournament where the main event is to be a battle to the death between two tigers. The tigers are none other than Sangha and Kumal. The brothers are to be reunited in a cruel, vicious manner. In this fight to the death they must now either rip each to shreds or against all odds remember their true roots.

TWO BROTHERS is a very well directed film with few special effects. It concentrates on the two main stars – the tigers Kumal and Sangha – while the actors take a back seat to them and the film benefits from this.

TWO BROTHERS is a thoroughly entertaining and genuine uplifting family film well worth the trip to the cinema for all ages.

4 out of 6 stars