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</script></div>{/googleAds}Two Brothers is one of those pleasant cinematic surprises that comes out of nowhere to steal your heart and pleasure your emotions. It's a precious little hidden gem that will surely be overlooked in a summer teeming with big-budget blockbuster flotsam and jetsam. And what a shame.

Parents wanting to make a point of exposing their children to responsible entertainment free from the assault of merchandising, singing animals and mind-numbing video games should not miss Two Brothers. But it's not a sterilized kiddy tale void of tough subject matter. Rather, it's a robust story of family love and sacrifice that touches the audience without resorting to cutesy parables and sexual innuendos. It'll spark discussion with your children about family relationships, respect for nature and learning to understand foreign cultures.

Our main characters, Kumal and Sangha, are two Bengal tigers that take us along on their journey of survival in the jungles of French occupied Indo-China circa 1920. As the film opens, director Jean-Jacques Annaud (Seven Years in Tibet, Enemy at the Gates) lovingly trains the camera on the young cubs as they frolick in the wild. He spends a lot of time in these opening scenes with the camera directly in their faces, allowing us to forge an important emotional and visual bond with the cubs. Sangha is timid and reluctant to explore; Kumal is confident and a bit more adventuresome.

Their peaceful isolated habitat, the ancient ruins of the Khmer Empire, soon collides with the Western World as writer-turned-raider Aiden McRory (Guy Pearce) sees the tigers as a danger to his proliferative artifact smuggling operation. The two cubs are captured and later become separated when Kumal is sold to a low-rent traveling circus and eventually trained to jump through fiery hoops. Sangha is taken in by Raoul (Freddie Highmore), the young son of a provincial governor, but is eventually given to a local prince who prizes him as the newest addition to his private menagerie.

Now grown up, the tigers are eventually pitted against each other in the middle of a gladiator ring, expected to fight to their death as entertainment for the humans. Will the brothers recognize each other? Will their sibling bond prove to be stronger than the will imposed by humans?

Filmed in Thailand and Cambodia by Jean-Marie Dreujou, this tale of family love is drenched with a warm sticky atmosphere that transports the viewer to one of the most beautiful and lush environs in the world. The camera lunges slowly from side to side as we ride alongside McRory's hunting party on the backs of elephants. Low camera angles in the dusty streets of Phnom Penh place the viewer in the middle of the action. The cinematography is complimented by a beautiful Stephen Warbeck score that magically harkens back to the classic jungle adventures.

We never feel as if Annaud is using the film as a bandstand for his personal agenda. He conveys the story's messages of family relationships and respect for nature with a loving touch that displays a genuine tenderness. However, as good as all the technical aspects are and as illuminating as the story is, it's the regal majesty of the cats that gives the film its roar. Too bad it won't be heard over the deafening din of another summer of ho-hum nonsense.

DVD Details:

Screen formats: Widescreen 2.35:1

Subtitles: Spanish; French.

Language and Sound: English: Dolby Digital 5.1; Spanish: Dolby Digital 5.1; French: Dolby Digital 5.1

Other Features: Color; interactive menus; scene access; director's commentary; photo gallery; featurette.

* Commentaries:
o With director Jean-Jacques Annoud
* Featurettes:
o Call of the Wild
o Wild About Tigers
o Tiger Brothers
o Tiger Cam
o Location Scouting
o Costume Design
* Photo Gallery:
o Story board photo gallery
o Jean Jacques Annaud's Journal
* DVD/ROM Features

Number of discs: 1

Packaging: Snap case

{pgomakase}