Wednesday 22 May 2013

Movie review - Red Riding Hood (2011)

Red Riding Hood (2011) / fantasy, mystery, thriller

Directed by Catherine Hardwicke
Written by David Leslie Johnson
Starring: Amanda Seyfried, Shiloh Fernandez, Max Irons, Gary Oldman, Billy Burke, Virginia Madsen, Julie Christie, Lukas Haas
Trailer: click.

Movie inspired by folk tale Little Red Riding Hood but for older audiance, more mysterious and dark. In the village where people live in fear of a werewolf there is also girl named Valerie (Amanda Seyfried). She is in love with the town woodcutter Peter (Shiloh Fernandez), but her parents have arranged for her to marry son of the wealthy blacksmith, Henry Lazar (Max Irons). Valerie and Peter plan to run away together but Wolf is back and Valerie's sister is killed. Local preacher August (Lukas Haas) decide to call for the famous witch hunter, Father Solomon (Gary Oldman) to help them get rid of the wolf. And Solomon is petty sure this wolf is a person. So who is it? Peter? Henry? Or even Valerie's grandma?

I'm fond of fantasy dark movies but some are just meaningless and I would count this movie in for sure. Film tries to be romantic (love triangle), mysterious and horror at same time but fails miserably. Undefined characters, poore screenplay, disjointed plot, bad CGI, there is some really unnecessary scenes, plus there is little or no chemistry between main protagonists. Honestly I was having problem to keep my attention because I was simply bored (my toughts were like: why should I even care for who the wolf is?). I think Amanda, Gary and Julie did a very good job considering how bad film is. Also on the positive side: good costumes and solid atmosphere. To conclude, it's one of those movies where trailer is better than movie itself and it just leaves you feeling completely nothing (empty). 2 /5


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