Amazon.com video review:
The fantastic visions of Belgian filmmakers Marc Caro and
Jean-Pierre Jeunet find full fruition in this fairy tale for
adults. Evoking utopias and dystopias from Brazil to Peter Pan, Caro
and Jeunet create a vivid but menacing fantasy city in a perpetually
twilight world. In this rough port town lives circus strongman One
(Ron Perlman), who wanders the alleys and waterfront dives looking for
his baby brother, snatched from him by a mysterious gang preying upon
the children of the town. Rising from the harbor is an enigmatic
castle where lives the evil scientist Krank (Daniel Emilfork), who has
lost the ability to dream and robs the nocturnal visions of the
children he kidnaps, but receives only mad nightmares from the lonely
cherubs. Other wild characters include the Fagin-like
Octopus--Siamese twin sisters who control a small gang of
runaways-turned-thieves--Krank's six cloned henchmen (all played by
the memorable Dominique Pinon from Delicatessen), and
a giant brain floating in an aquarium (voiced by Jean-Louis
Trintignant). Caro and Jeunet are kindred souls to Terry Gilliam (who
is a vocal fan), creating imaginative flights of fancy built of equal
parts delight and dread, which seem to be painted on the screen in
rich, dreamy colors. --Sean Axmaker
