Like many animal centred films before it - Andre, Flipper - Water For Elephants suffers from the beast upstaging the actors. I love IMDB's profile page for Tai who plays Rosie in this film, simply 'Trivia: is an elephant.' But she is more than just an elephant, Tai is probably one of the finest actors in this movie, she is an engaging presence on screen and you find yourself wishing there were more elephant-centric scenes. This is also due to the lacklustre feel to the rest of the movie, Robert Pattinson and Reese Witherspoon are clearly more taken with Rosie than they are with each other.
To explain: Water For Elephants is based on the best selling novel by Sara Gruen, concerning a veterinary student of Polish descent who abandons his degree after a family tragedy, only to come across a travelling circus and join them as resident vet and later bull-man to Rosie the elephant. Mixed into this story is the erratic and dangerous Ring Master August and his beautiful performer wife Marlena, whom Jacob the vet falls for.
It is set in the early 1930's, yet the film begins in the present day at a modern circus where an aged Jacob waiting for his son to arrive tells his story to a worker, who wants to know about the great disaster of 1931 when the Benzini Brothers circus was destroyed.
The film follows through the plot with suitable period grace and charm, the nastier side of circus life coming to the fore in appropriate places teaching Jacob that running away with the circus is not a fairytale. He is obviously a kind hearted soul, and his skills as a vet place him well within the circus elite. However he has to contend with the vicious August, who is played with much gusto by Oscar winner Christoph Waltz (Inglourious Basterds), to whom animals are things for making money from and to be dominated not cared for or respected. Apart from Rosie Waltz is perhaps the most engaging character on screen, his mood swings would create whiplash for those around him and yet he has a beautiful wife who seems to love him.
Of course this is not a film purely about elephants or the trials of running away with the circus, with the screenplay by Richard LaGravenese (Bridges of Madison County, PS I Love You) there is no doubt going to be a heart breaking love triangle...or maybe not. As stated before the film for the most part is lacklustre, Witherspoon and Pattinson have zero chemistry, a lot of me wants to say perhaps it is an age thing, that a younger woman should have been cast as Witherspoon presents too much of a grounded character to even think about running off with the vet. However age was certainly not an issue between Jennifer Aniston and Jake Gyllenhaal in The Good Girl, who have a greater age difference than Pattinson and Witherspoon. Maybe then it is what the the film is trying to present, we have no idea how old Marlena is, just that she was seventeen when she met August and married him to escape her life of poverty and care homes. Perhaps then the lack of chemistry is because the actors have not been able to define a more specific relationship, is it wrong for this young man in his early twenties to be after an older woman, or is she supposed to be of similar age, and yet clearly not?
There may just be an utter lack of chemistry between the two, which is a shame because had they had any kind of sexual tension I'm sure the screen would have lit up and the critics raved. As it is the love triangle plods through, with Jacob loving from afar, Marlena denying her feelings and August watching like a demented hawk. Pattinson does well, he is not an incredible actor by any feat of imagination but he isn't awful to watch, his interaction with Rosie is natural and the relationship mutually beneficial. Witherspoon, she has made some bad choices over the years (Four Christmases, How Do You Know) but is never horrific as an actress, this role has let her down somewhat, but also it feels as though she is going through the motions, her true potential was realised in Rendition and Walk The Line. But again she is clearly taken with Rosie, and the final snapshots of her life are more easy and natural than most of her screen time.
The ending feels a little rushed, I have not read the novel but it seems from the synopsis that it takes longer than the film does to end, and though the film was quite slow in pace I feel a little extra build up would have benefited the final scenes. What makes a difference between this film and the scriptwriters previous is that there is a relatively happy ending, however like a lot of American literature and film making you wish for someone to have the guts to create a little tragedy.
What made this film worth watching was Tai the elephant, she is magnificent and certainly steals the show from the Oscar winners and tweenage Idols. The story is not unlikeable but the lead romantic performances let it down so badly you just don't believe in them or their passion. A very disappointing film.
Wednesday 21 September 2011
Monday 19 September 2011
The Losers: well it doesn't win any prizes with me
The Losers is an action film based on the comic book series of the same name concerning a group of soldiers trying to find the man who tried to kill them in Bolivia, which resulted in their identities being marked as deceased and their reputations destroyed.
I hadn't heard many great reviews for this film but I thought I have to give it a try, after all it stars Chris Evans (Captain America) and Jeffrey Dean Morgan (Supernatural, Grey's Anatomy), both of whom I have had massive crushes on at some point in their careers.
Now its not as though I regret watching this film, I wasn't doing much else with my afternoon, but equally it would not have been a tragedy if I had never seen it.
Okay so I will start with some positives, the action, when you have it, is done well, the effects are pretty decent and it feels like the fights are done is a more realistic time frame than many action movies would have us believe. I enjoyed the fight between Jeffrey Dean Morgan and Zoe Saldana, especially as they both stretched beforehand rather than just launch into fisticuffs.
I also have no bad words about the actual acting, its hammy in places, quite a few in fact, but that is due to the story and the script - there is only so much an actor can do but if the words coming out of their mouths reek of bacon its a lost cause before they can try.
And this is where I will start my critique, the script writers have been previously responsible for the American High School Football centric series Friday Night Lights, the original comic 'The Losers', and surprisingly the 2007 film Zodiac. With the plethora of comic book movies out there you can understand the pressure to make something new, but the mix of sentiment and action does not blend well, and the characters are not adapted to the world of movies, they are generic and predictable. You have the mouthy computer wiz who is also fairly rubbish when it comes to the ladies (played by Evans), the icy second in command who is constantly on edge, the foreign sniper who does not talk much but has a soft side, the laid back driving/flying expert who keeps a lucky charm on him (a nodding dashboard dog), and finally we have Jeffrey Dean Morgan's character Colonel Clay again a typical leader, slightly roguish but determined and a good leader.
All the actors play their parts well, but they are the typical comic book soldiers, nothing especially brilliant or unique about them.
The prerequisite female presence is in the form of Zoe Saldana (Avatar, Star Trek XI), a volatile and wealthy woman bent on finding and killing Max, the mysterious super villain responsible for the death of her father and destroying The Loser's lives. Zoe is well equipped to handle the action as well as being a seductress, but again her character is so two dimensional you already know why she is so interested in the Losers almost before she arrives on screen.
Despite all this there is one character who out does all the rest on predictability and sheer annoyance factor, and that is Max the so called super villain. Imagine all the cartoon villains you watched as a kid, give them extra fire power and some swear words and you have Max. Unlike most actors given such a role, here I think of Jack Nicholson's Joker, Jason Patric (My Sister's Keeper, Speed 2) has no fun playing the villain, or at least if he is enjoying himself it is not evident on screen. Even his sidekick is neither terrified or in awe of him, and is frankly rather dull. Max is so over the top, but he is not scary, and somebody who can decide to have a person thrown off the top of a building by a nod should at least thrill the audience, and I remained pretty calm.
What really lets the film down is the direction, there are many movies that have predictable characters and plot lines but still remain watchable (Die Hard 2 suffers from bad scripting but still holds together). Sylvain White (Stomp The Yard) is the man in charge here, and he has interlaced the action and banter with oddly shot sex scenes that are not explicit but almost too intimate for this kind of film, yes sex sells but sometimes sexual tension can be enough to keep an audience engaged. The plot is allowed to trudge its way through the motions, from the brutal beginning of mass child murder, which is not as sad as it should be, to the finale showdown between the Losers, a former friend, and super villain Max. The story is not confusing or too intelligent for the viewer, it is predictable at every twist and turn, the budget was obviously not small but White appears to have only been able to make the action effective with it, the rest suffers from a lack of artistry by the director.
Unfortunately this movie plays out like a poorly written comic book, the action scenes are fun but not enough to save the hammy script, and despite a stellar cast (Idris Elba of The Wire and Luther plays the angry second in command) they too cannot save this film from being yet another action movie with no clout.
I hadn't heard many great reviews for this film but I thought I have to give it a try, after all it stars Chris Evans (Captain America) and Jeffrey Dean Morgan (Supernatural, Grey's Anatomy), both of whom I have had massive crushes on at some point in their careers.
Now its not as though I regret watching this film, I wasn't doing much else with my afternoon, but equally it would not have been a tragedy if I had never seen it.
Okay so I will start with some positives, the action, when you have it, is done well, the effects are pretty decent and it feels like the fights are done is a more realistic time frame than many action movies would have us believe. I enjoyed the fight between Jeffrey Dean Morgan and Zoe Saldana, especially as they both stretched beforehand rather than just launch into fisticuffs.
I also have no bad words about the actual acting, its hammy in places, quite a few in fact, but that is due to the story and the script - there is only so much an actor can do but if the words coming out of their mouths reek of bacon its a lost cause before they can try.
And this is where I will start my critique, the script writers have been previously responsible for the American High School Football centric series Friday Night Lights, the original comic 'The Losers', and surprisingly the 2007 film Zodiac. With the plethora of comic book movies out there you can understand the pressure to make something new, but the mix of sentiment and action does not blend well, and the characters are not adapted to the world of movies, they are generic and predictable. You have the mouthy computer wiz who is also fairly rubbish when it comes to the ladies (played by Evans), the icy second in command who is constantly on edge, the foreign sniper who does not talk much but has a soft side, the laid back driving/flying expert who keeps a lucky charm on him (a nodding dashboard dog), and finally we have Jeffrey Dean Morgan's character Colonel Clay again a typical leader, slightly roguish but determined and a good leader.
All the actors play their parts well, but they are the typical comic book soldiers, nothing especially brilliant or unique about them.
The prerequisite female presence is in the form of Zoe Saldana (Avatar, Star Trek XI), a volatile and wealthy woman bent on finding and killing Max, the mysterious super villain responsible for the death of her father and destroying The Loser's lives. Zoe is well equipped to handle the action as well as being a seductress, but again her character is so two dimensional you already know why she is so interested in the Losers almost before she arrives on screen.
Despite all this there is one character who out does all the rest on predictability and sheer annoyance factor, and that is Max the so called super villain. Imagine all the cartoon villains you watched as a kid, give them extra fire power and some swear words and you have Max. Unlike most actors given such a role, here I think of Jack Nicholson's Joker, Jason Patric (My Sister's Keeper, Speed 2) has no fun playing the villain, or at least if he is enjoying himself it is not evident on screen. Even his sidekick is neither terrified or in awe of him, and is frankly rather dull. Max is so over the top, but he is not scary, and somebody who can decide to have a person thrown off the top of a building by a nod should at least thrill the audience, and I remained pretty calm.
What really lets the film down is the direction, there are many movies that have predictable characters and plot lines but still remain watchable (Die Hard 2 suffers from bad scripting but still holds together). Sylvain White (Stomp The Yard) is the man in charge here, and he has interlaced the action and banter with oddly shot sex scenes that are not explicit but almost too intimate for this kind of film, yes sex sells but sometimes sexual tension can be enough to keep an audience engaged. The plot is allowed to trudge its way through the motions, from the brutal beginning of mass child murder, which is not as sad as it should be, to the finale showdown between the Losers, a former friend, and super villain Max. The story is not confusing or too intelligent for the viewer, it is predictable at every twist and turn, the budget was obviously not small but White appears to have only been able to make the action effective with it, the rest suffers from a lack of artistry by the director.
Unfortunately this movie plays out like a poorly written comic book, the action scenes are fun but not enough to save the hammy script, and despite a stellar cast (Idris Elba of The Wire and Luther plays the angry second in command) they too cannot save this film from being yet another action movie with no clout.
Thursday 15 September 2011
A Little Bit Of Heaven: good for both a laugh and a cry
If you had asked me yesterday morning before I watched this film and the previous review, Bad Teacher, which one I would enjoy the most I would have said without hesitation Bad Teacher. As you can tell much to my surprise I actually preferred A Little Bit of Heaven, maybe it was the mood I was in or because the story is morally superior to a teacher wanting a boob job, but I laughed out loud more times than I expected.
The story here is Kate Hudson plays Marley, a happy go lucky individual not interested in relationships, just living life to what she believes is the fullest. Then after a trip to the doctor to work out why she is run down and losing weight finds out she has terminal colon cancer. It is quite brave to use this cancer as its not the normal 'chick cancer', it is an aggressive and particularly hard to catch cancer too as it is nothing you can check for lumps for, and they have Kate take the mickey out of herself for getting 'ass cancer'.
She has an outer body experience while having an endoscopy involving Whoopi Goldberg, I quite enjoyed this as its always fun to see Whoopi, and Marley's reaction to seeing her is incredibly real also as though she is meeting her for the first time. From this meeting Marley is told she is dying and is granted three wishes, one to fly, second to win a million dollars, but she cannot come up with a third and so is sent back to consciousness to work it out.
What anybody could guess from the first five minutes of this movie is that her third wish is to fall in love, that actually she wants everything she felt was mundane and not in her game plan such as the house the kids the husband. And so we have Julian, Marley's doctor and the man to bring her love before she leaves this mortal coil. I love Gael Garcia Bernal who plays Doctor Julian Goldstein (a Jewish Mexican), and before watching this film I felt he was becoming trapped in this world of Romantic Comedies having previously starred in Letters to Juliet with Amanda Seyfried. Now however I think his decision to do this film was right, he is dorky and cute, but also serious, and it opens up more roles for him in the mainstream American market. But if you want to see him at his best watch the Motorcycle Diaries.
Back to the film, the relationships between Marley and her friends are funny, sweet, and poignant, especially the pregnant friend not quite being able to deal with awaiting the birth of her second child while her best friend is dying. Lucy Punch plays Marley's artistic best friend Sarah, and she is the most robust of the friendship group when it comes to dealing with the cancer, until the very end of course, the kind of friend I'd hope to be.
To complete Marley's support group we have her parents, her Mother who comes to live with her played by the wonderful Kathy Bates, and her emotionally constipated Father Treat Williams.
This movie ticks along nicely, it has the obvious emotional ups and downs, but it doesn't try to do anything differently, except perhaps having Whoopi Goldberg as a godlike mentor for Marley, and that was why it was enjoyable. No miracle cures are discovered, Marley finds love before the end, her friends don't all cope so well with her illness, and even Peter Dinklage makes an appearance as a dwarf escort. I laughed, I cried, and what was important I think was that I didn't expect too much from the movie, and it did not expect too much from me.
A film to watch if you are in the mood for a weepy, but often laugh out loud funny, couple of hours.
The story here is Kate Hudson plays Marley, a happy go lucky individual not interested in relationships, just living life to what she believes is the fullest. Then after a trip to the doctor to work out why she is run down and losing weight finds out she has terminal colon cancer. It is quite brave to use this cancer as its not the normal 'chick cancer', it is an aggressive and particularly hard to catch cancer too as it is nothing you can check for lumps for, and they have Kate take the mickey out of herself for getting 'ass cancer'.
She has an outer body experience while having an endoscopy involving Whoopi Goldberg, I quite enjoyed this as its always fun to see Whoopi, and Marley's reaction to seeing her is incredibly real also as though she is meeting her for the first time. From this meeting Marley is told she is dying and is granted three wishes, one to fly, second to win a million dollars, but she cannot come up with a third and so is sent back to consciousness to work it out.
What anybody could guess from the first five minutes of this movie is that her third wish is to fall in love, that actually she wants everything she felt was mundane and not in her game plan such as the house the kids the husband. And so we have Julian, Marley's doctor and the man to bring her love before she leaves this mortal coil. I love Gael Garcia Bernal who plays Doctor Julian Goldstein (a Jewish Mexican), and before watching this film I felt he was becoming trapped in this world of Romantic Comedies having previously starred in Letters to Juliet with Amanda Seyfried. Now however I think his decision to do this film was right, he is dorky and cute, but also serious, and it opens up more roles for him in the mainstream American market. But if you want to see him at his best watch the Motorcycle Diaries.
Back to the film, the relationships between Marley and her friends are funny, sweet, and poignant, especially the pregnant friend not quite being able to deal with awaiting the birth of her second child while her best friend is dying. Lucy Punch plays Marley's artistic best friend Sarah, and she is the most robust of the friendship group when it comes to dealing with the cancer, until the very end of course, the kind of friend I'd hope to be.
To complete Marley's support group we have her parents, her Mother who comes to live with her played by the wonderful Kathy Bates, and her emotionally constipated Father Treat Williams.
This movie ticks along nicely, it has the obvious emotional ups and downs, but it doesn't try to do anything differently, except perhaps having Whoopi Goldberg as a godlike mentor for Marley, and that was why it was enjoyable. No miracle cures are discovered, Marley finds love before the end, her friends don't all cope so well with her illness, and even Peter Dinklage makes an appearance as a dwarf escort. I laughed, I cried, and what was important I think was that I didn't expect too much from the movie, and it did not expect too much from me.
A film to watch if you are in the mood for a weepy, but often laugh out loud funny, couple of hours.
Bad Teacher: Rubbish Film
Alright its not THAT bad, but its bad enough.
So we have Cameron Diaz, along with Sandra Bullock and Drew Barrymore, is a Queen of the Romantic Comedy movie, which is probably why she chose to do a film where she is not the struggling heroine, in fact the audience are expected to want her to fail. Where you have a film you are not supposed to like the lead character (or at least their actions) there has to be somebody else to root for, this can be the person out to bring them down, here played by Brit Lucy Punch, or more likely the love interest who is being pushed to the side, the saving grace that is Jason Segel. Genuinely if Jason was not in this film I would have been sorely tempted to turn it off, he provides most of the laugh out loud moments and engages well with Cameron in a fight for best facial expressions.
Cameron is playing a deeply unlikeable character, she is a woman who has spent her life looking for a rich man to keep her, and when she is caught out by said rich man's mother and has to return to her teaching job proves to be such an awful educator she makes the children watch movies every class. That is until she realises she needs ten thousand dollars to get a boob job so she can attract a particularly stupid kind of rich mate, then we see her use and abuse the kids in her class to earn said cash.
Firstly its confusing that such a lack lustre educator got through a college degree and training, but we aren't supposed to think too much about those details, in fact without the highly sexualised content (dry humping for a considerable amount of time) this film could have easily been targeted at the tweenager generation rather than the older teen/young adult. Then you wonder how such a woman with obvious intelligence (she gets the job as teacher and when it becomes a financial incentive to educate the kids expects a much higher level than their age/education provides), could want anything as banal as a life lived off her husband.
Timberlake as her potential love interest plays his role well, he is tedious and soppy, but also another possibly more terrible human being than Cameron's character as he is pro the boob job, then also cheats on his equally soppy, but ruthless) teacher girlfriend played by Lucy Punch with Cameron. Jason Segel is one of the few anti-breast implants, which I loved him for, but is also down to earth and funny as he makes fun of Timberlake and Punch, or even Diaz in his pursuit of her.
So what I liked about this film other than Segel was that Diaz's character does not change a whole lot from start to finish, rather her values adapt better to the environment she has found herself in but her integral character does not distort to become a 'better' person at the finish.
Lessons are learnt and events are tied up, there are a few laughs along the way but overall this film is not great, Cameron and Jason are coasting in these roles, Lucy Punch does very well as the annoying co-worker out to prove what a poor educator Diaz really is, and Timberlake is frankly irritating as the substitute who never seems to leave the school.
If you are a fan of Cameron Diaz or Jason Segel give the film a chance, they are funny and engaging, however do not be surprised if you find yourself bored by the rest or wanting to throw something at Justin Timberlake while he simpers or sings in the most god awful rhymes.
So we have Cameron Diaz, along with Sandra Bullock and Drew Barrymore, is a Queen of the Romantic Comedy movie, which is probably why she chose to do a film where she is not the struggling heroine, in fact the audience are expected to want her to fail. Where you have a film you are not supposed to like the lead character (or at least their actions) there has to be somebody else to root for, this can be the person out to bring them down, here played by Brit Lucy Punch, or more likely the love interest who is being pushed to the side, the saving grace that is Jason Segel. Genuinely if Jason was not in this film I would have been sorely tempted to turn it off, he provides most of the laugh out loud moments and engages well with Cameron in a fight for best facial expressions.
Cameron is playing a deeply unlikeable character, she is a woman who has spent her life looking for a rich man to keep her, and when she is caught out by said rich man's mother and has to return to her teaching job proves to be such an awful educator she makes the children watch movies every class. That is until she realises she needs ten thousand dollars to get a boob job so she can attract a particularly stupid kind of rich mate, then we see her use and abuse the kids in her class to earn said cash.
Firstly its confusing that such a lack lustre educator got through a college degree and training, but we aren't supposed to think too much about those details, in fact without the highly sexualised content (dry humping for a considerable amount of time) this film could have easily been targeted at the tweenager generation rather than the older teen/young adult. Then you wonder how such a woman with obvious intelligence (she gets the job as teacher and when it becomes a financial incentive to educate the kids expects a much higher level than their age/education provides), could want anything as banal as a life lived off her husband.
Timberlake as her potential love interest plays his role well, he is tedious and soppy, but also another possibly more terrible human being than Cameron's character as he is pro the boob job, then also cheats on his equally soppy, but ruthless) teacher girlfriend played by Lucy Punch with Cameron. Jason Segel is one of the few anti-breast implants, which I loved him for, but is also down to earth and funny as he makes fun of Timberlake and Punch, or even Diaz in his pursuit of her.
So what I liked about this film other than Segel was that Diaz's character does not change a whole lot from start to finish, rather her values adapt better to the environment she has found herself in but her integral character does not distort to become a 'better' person at the finish.
Lessons are learnt and events are tied up, there are a few laughs along the way but overall this film is not great, Cameron and Jason are coasting in these roles, Lucy Punch does very well as the annoying co-worker out to prove what a poor educator Diaz really is, and Timberlake is frankly irritating as the substitute who never seems to leave the school.
If you are a fan of Cameron Diaz or Jason Segel give the film a chance, they are funny and engaging, however do not be surprised if you find yourself bored by the rest or wanting to throw something at Justin Timberlake while he simpers or sings in the most god awful rhymes.
Red Riding Hood: Who's attracted to the Big Bad Wolf?
The latest offering from Catherine Hardwicke, who began the Twilight Saga two years ago with an intense and oddly lit film, travels much the same path as the Vampiric love story, only this time she gets to play with wolves.
Here Hardwicke has adapted the classic fairy tale of Red Riding Hood, except Red is now a young woman called Valerie in the bloom of youth and sexuality. The setting is a North American village in the depths of winter, at an unknown time or area, but with the mountain ranges Hardwicke loves so much it is probably somewhere close to Canada. All this is besides the point as the target audience, lovers of the supernatural and teenagers, don't much care for specifics.
The scenery is beautiful in this film, but overused, too many sweeping shots of mountain ranges and you start to become a little bored by the snow, yes, we get it, the village is remote and somewhere in the snow covered forests. It is all meant to build up the tension of this small village being targeted by the big bad wolf, they are alone in their fear until the village priest brings in the enigmatic Gary Oldman and his foreign soldiers (rather like the cheap stunt of using Morgan Freeman in Robin Hood as the wise foreign warrior Hardwicke uses black actors to portray mysterious fighting men who know all about the mythology of the wolf).
The music too is used to pump up the atmosphere, however it is far too similar to Twilight, as is the lighting, in that you feel like you are watching the same movie. Even the 'dangerous' love interest of Peter (possibly a sly reference to Peter and the wolf) has the distinctive Rob Pattinson sweep to his hair. Luckily Amanda Seyfried is a more engaging actress than her contemporary Kristen Stewart so you are at least engaged with her own story. Casting in this film is of rather a high calibre, alongside Oldman we have Julie Christie playing Grandma and Hardwicke favourite Billy Burke as Valerie's father. Peter is played by newcomer Shiloh Fernandez and his rival, wealthy iron worker and Valerie's betrothed Henry, by Max Irons, Jeremy's son.
Both young men do well in their respective roles, however they are not challenging, as said Peter's haircut is similar to Edward Cullen's but this is not the only attribute the two share, both are dark and possibly dangerous, are generally hated by everybody else except the girl, and the girl is entirely unable to love anybody else except them. Max Irons plays the typical boy who loves the girl but will never get her, because there is a dark brooding handsome young man who is just far more interesting.
By far my favourite character is the Grandma, Julie Christie is a fabulous actress and she brings a whole new dimension to the role, you never quite know whether to trust her or not, what her intentions for Valerie are. This is a testament to the abilities of Seyfried as well, you see the film through her eyes so the mistrust of the Grandma comes from Valerie's own misgivings of her eccentric Grandmother living alone on the outskirts of the forest. Gary Oldman too does well as the Wolf Hunter coming in to rid the village of their pest, but this role is such a weak one you wonder how large the pay-check was to entice him to star here.
Billy Burke has a better role here than the disgruntled father he plays in the Twilight Saga (saying that he is the best piece of casting those films have made) and gets to play a more twisted role, and really excelling as the woodsman harbouring the darkest of secrets.
The film attempts to fool the viewer with a series of red herrings, and to be honest I was kept guessing until the end, only one person I was certain would be nothing to do with the wolf and even then I was proved wrong at the finish.
However this is not to say the twists in who or who is not the wolf makes this film entirely engaging, it does not. The atmosphere and environment is all trying too hard to make you feel scared of the big bad wolf, the sexual tension between Valerie and Peter is incredibly fraught and angst-y as though a teenager in the throes of first love has written the script, and it simply is not original enough to be more than okay.
The saving grace of the film is the acting, nobody is lacking in the talent department, and they do their best with the script and story.
It is not that bad of a film, however Hardwicke has lost the light touch she displayed when making Lords of Dogtown or Thirteen, where the scripting and direction feels less restricted and the actors given more reign to play with. After the success of Twilight of course it was tempting to make similar style movie, her budget was bigger so could invest in the special effects (which aren't too bad) and the cast list, however with success comes complacency and rather than push boundaries Red Riding Hood stays within the tweenager supernatural arena, with a little sexual content and some violence, but these are becoming so accepted within movies to find a film that does not rely on sex to sell is the one that is refreshing and more likely to succeed in today's crowded supernatural marketplace.
Here Hardwicke has adapted the classic fairy tale of Red Riding Hood, except Red is now a young woman called Valerie in the bloom of youth and sexuality. The setting is a North American village in the depths of winter, at an unknown time or area, but with the mountain ranges Hardwicke loves so much it is probably somewhere close to Canada. All this is besides the point as the target audience, lovers of the supernatural and teenagers, don't much care for specifics.
The scenery is beautiful in this film, but overused, too many sweeping shots of mountain ranges and you start to become a little bored by the snow, yes, we get it, the village is remote and somewhere in the snow covered forests. It is all meant to build up the tension of this small village being targeted by the big bad wolf, they are alone in their fear until the village priest brings in the enigmatic Gary Oldman and his foreign soldiers (rather like the cheap stunt of using Morgan Freeman in Robin Hood as the wise foreign warrior Hardwicke uses black actors to portray mysterious fighting men who know all about the mythology of the wolf).
The music too is used to pump up the atmosphere, however it is far too similar to Twilight, as is the lighting, in that you feel like you are watching the same movie. Even the 'dangerous' love interest of Peter (possibly a sly reference to Peter and the wolf) has the distinctive Rob Pattinson sweep to his hair. Luckily Amanda Seyfried is a more engaging actress than her contemporary Kristen Stewart so you are at least engaged with her own story. Casting in this film is of rather a high calibre, alongside Oldman we have Julie Christie playing Grandma and Hardwicke favourite Billy Burke as Valerie's father. Peter is played by newcomer Shiloh Fernandez and his rival, wealthy iron worker and Valerie's betrothed Henry, by Max Irons, Jeremy's son.
Both young men do well in their respective roles, however they are not challenging, as said Peter's haircut is similar to Edward Cullen's but this is not the only attribute the two share, both are dark and possibly dangerous, are generally hated by everybody else except the girl, and the girl is entirely unable to love anybody else except them. Max Irons plays the typical boy who loves the girl but will never get her, because there is a dark brooding handsome young man who is just far more interesting.
By far my favourite character is the Grandma, Julie Christie is a fabulous actress and she brings a whole new dimension to the role, you never quite know whether to trust her or not, what her intentions for Valerie are. This is a testament to the abilities of Seyfried as well, you see the film through her eyes so the mistrust of the Grandma comes from Valerie's own misgivings of her eccentric Grandmother living alone on the outskirts of the forest. Gary Oldman too does well as the Wolf Hunter coming in to rid the village of their pest, but this role is such a weak one you wonder how large the pay-check was to entice him to star here.
Billy Burke has a better role here than the disgruntled father he plays in the Twilight Saga (saying that he is the best piece of casting those films have made) and gets to play a more twisted role, and really excelling as the woodsman harbouring the darkest of secrets.
The film attempts to fool the viewer with a series of red herrings, and to be honest I was kept guessing until the end, only one person I was certain would be nothing to do with the wolf and even then I was proved wrong at the finish.
However this is not to say the twists in who or who is not the wolf makes this film entirely engaging, it does not. The atmosphere and environment is all trying too hard to make you feel scared of the big bad wolf, the sexual tension between Valerie and Peter is incredibly fraught and angst-y as though a teenager in the throes of first love has written the script, and it simply is not original enough to be more than okay.
The saving grace of the film is the acting, nobody is lacking in the talent department, and they do their best with the script and story.
It is not that bad of a film, however Hardwicke has lost the light touch she displayed when making Lords of Dogtown or Thirteen, where the scripting and direction feels less restricted and the actors given more reign to play with. After the success of Twilight of course it was tempting to make similar style movie, her budget was bigger so could invest in the special effects (which aren't too bad) and the cast list, however with success comes complacency and rather than push boundaries Red Riding Hood stays within the tweenager supernatural arena, with a little sexual content and some violence, but these are becoming so accepted within movies to find a film that does not rely on sex to sell is the one that is refreshing and more likely to succeed in today's crowded supernatural marketplace.
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