Synopsis
Catherine Hardwicke (Twilight) directs a fantasy thriller that puts a haunting twist on the classic fairy tale. For years the villagers of Daggerhorn have maintained an uneasy truce with a werewolf – but the beast changes the stakes by killing the older sister of beautiful young Valerie (Amanda Seyfried). Promised in marriage to one man but in love with another, Valerie has her life dramatically affected yet again by the creature’s bloody actions. When a werewolf hunter warns that the beast takes human form by day and walks among them, panic sets in as the death toll rises. And Valerie learns she has a unique connection to the wolf that inexorably draws them together, making her both suspect…and bait. Gary Oldman, Billie Burke, Shiloh Fernandez, Max Irons, Virginia Madsen, Lukas Haas and Julie Christie also star.
Red Riding Hood has some good elements and some bad ones.
I like what Hardwicke did with the constraints of the environment around the villagers. I felt like the villagers were isolated and dealing with an actual wolf problem. This problem wasn’t simply something they could run away from because the village was too far out from any city, so getting that ‘we have to deal with this problem before we all die’ feeling was quite easy. For a horror film like this (and yes, I consider it a horror/fantasy film) that isolated feeling worked out extremely well for setting the mood for the entire film.
Another nice thing about the movie was the beautiful costumes. While I’m not certain why a grandmother would make a red cloak for someone’s wedding day (what in the world is she saying about Valerie?!), it did look quite gorgeous with the backdrop. Not to mention, the snow really brought out the colors and costumes from each actor. I’m not sure I’ve ever complimented a film on its costumes, but I was happy to notice them. Seeing Gary Oldman’s purple velvet jacket made me warm inside.
Anyway, those are the strong points of the film. As for the bad, the movie splits itself up into multiple problems. The first problem is the casting and what comes along with casting young folk.
The movie worries way too much about having young, good looking actors in place that could star in their own CW shows rather than putting the right people in the right setting. While I completely see the draw with an Amanda Seyfried (who is beautiful) and a Shiloh Fernandez (who plays the love interest to Amanda’s Valerie), they may not have been the right choices for the part. Their chemistry and delivery seemed really shallow and their comfort with their characters wasn’t completely intact. Again, they acted like they could have been starring in a CW show rather than a major motion picture. They just had no comfort in their characters at all.
Of course, improper setting didn’t help them out, as the correct time period for the story wasn’t represented at all. For example, the setting for the film is in the medieval time frame. I’m not so sure that they had ‘brohawks’ in the medieval times. If you’re going to create a world that represents a certain period of time then you have to actually ‘make’ that world.You can’t take your unimportant characters and make them rough looking and leave your main characters pretty. If you need a great example of movie matching the time period then look at movie like Gladiator or Excalibur. Those two films made their actors and actresses match the grungy world they resided in. Red Riding Hood simply didn’t go that route, rather it went the way of a Twilight look, which wasn’t correct.
On top of this issue, there were issues with chopping writing, which leads back to poor acting. When you have lines that involve, “Run away with me. We’ll leave this place behind.” then you’re in trouble. While some of the greatest films have included that line, films nowadays should have moved into more complicated, rich writing. If the actors and actresses don’t buy into the material than your audience certainly won’t. With that said, this also leads into another problem for the film and that was with pacing.
Director Catherine Hardwicke is all over the place with what she wants to do with the story. The great reveal for the wolf is nice, but it’s way too early for that to happen in the movie when it does. On top of this the filmmaker seems to stumble and repeat in some areas, as Valerie is trying to figure out who the ‘wolf’ ultimately is in the film. The mystery is certainly intriguing, but the journey to reveal who that person finally is seems to become a burden or a ‘just get on with it’ 20-minutes before it actually happens. There are just lots of up and down moments and the film didn’t need to have them. There was some great potential in this story, but bad writing and poor pacing really were the two elements that did it in.
So what about the Blu-ray? Well, despite the mess that the film seems to be the HD quality of the movie is pretty outstanding. Going back to the costumes, the vivid colors of the costumes in the film really stand out on a 1080p set. I was mesmerized on how gorgeous the red cloak was on Amanda Seyfried’s Valerie. Granted, the snowy backdrop of the movie helped to bring these colors out (much like if they were standing in an Apple commercial with a white background), but still the HD quality was pretty high. There was no noise or artifacts in the transfer and the colors really stood out, especially the reds/blacks/whites. If the CG in the film looked sharp, as you’ll see a lot of creepy details in the wolf’s face and body. It helps that the creature is black, but I’m positive it would have looked sharp if it had been white or whatever color. Another fine point of the Blu-ray is the audio. There’s nothing quite like a creepy soundtrack and some really harsh, uncomfortable sound effects. Horror films excel in this category usually and Red Riding Hood doesn’t disappoint.
As for features, you get quite a bit surprisingly. You get a nice picture-in-picture commentary called ‘Secrets behind the Red Cloak’. It’s neat stuff if you enjoy seeing the filmmakers comment on the movie instead of just hearing them. After that you get a large amount of featurettes that cover rehearsals of the actors, ideas behind the story, a neat feature that allows you to watch the entire movie in 73 seconds and a few other good features that go along with that. You also get deleted scenes and a pretty good gag reel (don’t miss the horse peeing in it). Finally, the last feature is a set of music videos from the film.
Honestly, the Blu-ray portion of the film really makes this entire release interesting. I’m not a fan of depending on features to make the Blu-ray better, but the features do make it a better experience overall.
Red Riding Hood available on Blu-ray Combo Pack, DVD, On Demand and for Download 6/14! http://bit.ly/RedRidingHoodFB
