Movie Review: 'Red Riding Hood' ain't no fairy tale anymore
The movie "Red Riding Hood," currently showing at the Casino Fandango Galaxy multiplex in Carson City, makes s couple of nods to the fairy tale story but goes into more violent and wayward actions.
In a way, this is a ludicrous film, with Amanda Seyfried as Valerie (Red Riding hood), who certainly has the wide-eyed look of a naive young lady (not as a young girl, need a little more sex than a girl could offer) and in one scene almost becomes engaged in a bit of sex.
All this takes place in the quaint village of Daggerhorn, which could be almost anyplace in Europe, as it is complete with mountains and son. (Curiously, despite snow being everywhere, everybody runs around in shirt sleeves and tunics never having breath the shows the cold; this is so absurd one wonders if anyone was watching business, but then this is a sort of fairy tale and maybe nobody gets cold in a fairy tale. Just sloppy film making.)
The plot is about a werewolf who terrorizes the town on full moons. Bu the townsfolk think they have killed the werewolf and display the head of the real wolf they killed.
But then Father Solomon (Gary Oldman) arrives with an entourage, including two black guards and one Asian and a crossbow man who stands around swinging his bow like a mafia hit man. Solomon tells the villagers they still have to deal with the werewolf. The wolf, a large black beast computer figure, comes into the village and kills several villagers.
Included in Solomon's train is a metal elephant with trap door where people can be stuffed in and roasted live. Elephants in Dark Ages Europe? Why not?
Lots of people die, including Father Solomon who was bitten by the werewolf and is slain by one of his guards, the brother of another guard who was knifed by Solomon.
Still with me?
Yes, there is a grandmother (Julie Christie, alas) who gives Valerie a long red cloak for visiting times. There's also a Cesaire (Billy Burke) who is Valerie's father and turns out not to be the nice guy you might expect. And the grandmother does have long teeth etc. about the only aspect of the fairy tale that survives.
Well, it's hard to take such a film seriously, even as a modern fairy tale. What writer David Leslie Johnson and director Catherine Hardwicke (of the "Twilight" films) had in mind is not clear. There's not enough sex (except for the one modest scene) to please the younger crowd or the sub-teen crowd, or the older folks who remember the fairy tale. This is a film with violence, a scary big black werewolf and a couple of leading men hard to tell apart. Don't know who was the target audience.
If you're in the mood to see a fairy tale wrestled around for no good reason you might enjoy "Red Riding Hood," remembering that the "Little" from the fairy tale has been lost with the very mature, big-eyed Seyfried not very innocent.
And as a curiosity the top producer of this affair is none other than Leonardo DiCaprio. Must have been between real films. Oh yes, the film ends with Valerie and lover interest walking the mountains with a long red trail behind her. Marriage trail, happy ending? Who knows (or cares).
— Sam Bauman
Cast
— Amanda Seyfried as Valerie
— Virginia Madsen as Suzette
— Billy Burke as Cesaire
— Julie Christie as Grandmother
— Shiloh Fernandez as Peter[
— Gary Oldman as Father Solomon
— Max Irons as Henry Lazar
— Michael Shanks as Adrien Lazar
— Christine Willes as Madame Lazar[
— Michael Hogan as The Reeve
— Lukas Haas as Father August
— Directed by: Catherine Hardwicke
— Produced by: Leonardo DiCaprio, Jennifer Davisson, Killoran, Julie Yorn
— Music by: Brian Reitzell and Alex Heffes
— Cinematography: Mandy Walker
Running time: 100 minutes, rated PG-13