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THE WOLFMAN Joe Johnston Starring Benicio Del Toro Emily Blunt Anthony Hopkins Hugo Weaving The premise of George Waggner's original Wolf Man film is a little sparse; essentially a young man returns to his home in Wales, falls for a girl, gets bitten by a werewolf, deals with it - there isn't exactly a great deal else going on. With this latest telling of the classic werewolf story, Joe Johnston has attempted to breathe new life into the story and do for The Wolfman what Francis Ford Coppola did for Dracula. Set in 1890's England, Lawrence Talbot [Del Toro] returns to the home of his estranged father on receiving news of his brother's death. His father, an over the hill big-game hunter played by Anthony Hopkins, welcomes his son home but shows little emotion either way. The other resident of the manner is the late Talbot's fiancée, Gwen [Blunt]. As Lawrence investigates further into his brother's demise he hears superstitious whispers and accusations that passing gypsies are to blame. Lawrence follows these clues only to find and be bitten by the beast. After a fortnight or so, Lawrence's wounds quickly heal and Scotland Yard send Detective Abberline [Weaving] to apprehend the supposed killer. As you can imagine, the next full moon rises and Talbot goes on his first killing spree before being caught and detained the following morning, covered in blood. Obviously the plot carries on from here but that would be revealing too much. In all fairness, this film does do an incredibly good job at times. The score is dark and moody, the cinematography is near-perfect, the atmosphere, lighting, costume and set design are all typically gothic - while keeping with the Victorian countryside feel - and for the most part the acting is certainly above par. However, this only suits half of the film as The Wolfman's biggest flaw is the identity crisis from which it seems to suffer. Unable to decide whether to follow the stereotypical trappings of a period drama or contemporary horror, Johnston's film feels a little displaced and curiously wanting. That's not to say the separate elements don't work well, just that they have not been blended together as best they could be. What has been created here is certainly a commendable effort (especially when concerning the visual elements such as costume, make-up and prosthetics) and one that audiences should largely enjoy but without better pacing and what appears to be an overabundance of last minute alterations and tinkering, The Wolfman ultimately fails to create a re-envisioned classic. Release Date: 12th February 2010 The Scene To Look Out For: Bound to a chair for a hall of educated men to see (as is a common occurrence in Victorian horror films), Talbot violently transforms into the Wolfman. I almost hated this scene. Don't get me wrong, there are plenty of truly standout moments that I really enjoyed but the combination of patchy CGI, manic screams of "I'll kill all of you!" from Del Toro and the limb ripping just demonstrated everything amiss with this release. I don't know if the cast and crew planned from the start to make a gory tribute to the original while infusing a great deal of subplot but somewhere along the way, their original vision clouded over. Notable Characters: Hopkins' role as Sir John Talbot is probably one of the highlights. Granted, Del Toro is amusing as he frowns from one scene to the next, desperately trying to convince everyone that he's British and Hugo Weaving's turn as Abberline is altogether pleasing but Hopkins really steals the show -- albeit not always in a positive way. Highlighted Quote: "The past is a savage wilderness" In A Few Words: "As a re-imagining of a classic, The Wolman leaves a lot to be desired but as far as most werewolf movies go, this one is certainly better than most" Total Score: 
6/10Matthew Stogdon |
