 Wilhelm Grimm ( Matt Damon ) and Jakob Grimm ( Heath Ledger ) arrive in French @-@ occupied Germany during the early 1800s . They go to Karlstadt to rid the town of a witch 's ghost . After killing the " ghost " , it is revealed that the Brothers Grimm have actually set up a fake witch to trick the town . Afterwards , as they are celebrating , Italian torturer Mercurio Cavaldi ( Peter Stormare ) takes them to the French General Delatombe ( Jonathan Pryce ) . Delatombe forces them to solve a mystery : The girls of the small village of <unk> are disappearing , and the villagers are convinced that supernatural beings are responsible . The Grimms are charged with finding who is responsible , and they soon discover that it is the work of a real supernatural force : a beautiful , yet evil , 500 @-@ year @-@ old Thuringian Queen ( Monica Bellucci ) stealing young girls to restore her own beauty . Will and Jake have a complicated relationship ; Jake is the smaller , younger , more sensitive one that Will feels he needs to protect . Will is often very hard on Jake ( dating all the way back to their childhood , when Jake spent their money that was to be used for medicine for their dying sister on " magic beans " ) and orders him around . Will is somewhat of a womanizer and wants to make money , whereas Jake is more interested in fairy tales and adventures . Jake feels that Will doesn 't care about or believe in him ; but Will is just frustrated about the way Jake acts so spontaneously , making it hard for Will to protect him . 
