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.
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