Plot
Set in 1920s French colonial Cambodia, the story follows two Indochinese tiger brothers, Sangha and Kumal, born to a protective tigress and a male tiger killed by adventurer Aidan McRory. Separated as cubs, their paths diverge: Kumal is captured by villagers, sold to a cruel circus run by Zerbino and Saladin, and trained through abuse to perform dangerous stunts. Sangha, meanwhile, is briefly adopted by Raoul, the son of French administrator Eugene Normandin, but is later sent to a palace menagerie after a conflict with the family’s dog.
McRory, a morally ambiguous hunter, becomes entangled in their fates. After failing to appease a vain Khmer prince with a counterfeit tiger skin (from the circus’s elderly tiger Caesar), he later discovers Sangha’s identity as the prince’s captive “ferocious” tiger. When the prince organizes a staged battle between Sangha and Kumal, the brothers initially clash but recognize each other mid-fight, reverting to playful cubhood antics. Chaos ensues as their trainers provoke them, leading to a violent escape.
The reunited tigers flee into the wilderness, causing mischief in nearby villages. McRory and Raoul track them, but Raoul persuades Sangha to return to the jungle to avoid human threats. Kumal, recalling McRory’s past kindness, spares him before both tigers retreat to their ancestral temple. There, they reunite with their mother, identifiable by a gunshot wound in her ear from McRory’s earlier hunt. The trio finds peace in the wild, symbolizing resilience against colonial exploitation and captivity.
Release and reception
Two Brothers opened at No.9 with $6,144,160 in its opening weekend (25–27 June). The film earned a worldwide total of $62,174,008 by the end of its theatrical run against an estimated budget of €57,860,727, [1] making it a box office success. Two Brothers opened in theaters in the United States by Universal Pictures by 25 June 2004. It was released on DVD and VHS on December 21.
The film received generally positive reviews. It holds a score of 78% based on 113 reviews on review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, with an average rating of 6.6/10. The website's critics consensus reads, "A charming family-friendly movie with stunning cinematography." [4] On Metacritic, the film holds a weighted average score of 63 out of 100 based on 27 reviews, indicating "generally favorable reviews". [5] Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A-" on an A+ to F scale. [6]
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