Red Riding Hood (Warner Brothers)
Wrong In So Many Ways
Can you imagine people actually sitting down and saying Lets make a movie about Red Riding Hood. What were they thinking But make it they did and now we have Amanda Seyfried, Gary Oldman, Virginia Madsen and Julie Christie traipsing around in the snow bringing this fairy tale to life. Oh the horror!
Valerie (Seyfried) lives in a village with her mother, father and sister. She is very much in love with Peter (Shiloh Fernandez) and plans to run away with him. Before they can leave she gets word the wolf that terrorizes her village has killed her sister. A posse is formed to kill the wolf and it includes Peter and Henry (Max Irons). Henry is the person Valeries family has chosen for her to marry.
While all this is going on Valerie escapes to the comfort of her grandmothers (Julie Christie) house. While there her grandmother gives her a red cape she has sewn for her. Valerie wears it for most of the rest off the movie.
Oldman pops up in the movie as Solomon, a werewolf killer. He has the requisite sneer to show that he is not a really nice person at all and is doing this not for the villagers but for his own gratification.
The story delves into Valeries home life. Her father (Billy Burke) is a drunk and her mother (Virginia Madsen) seems to be hiding something from her past. And Grandmother, well she is the strangest of them all.
None of this extraneous story is particularly interesting. The acting is all overwrought, and the werewolf angle is pretty laughable. The most ridiculous aspect is the look of the female stars in this film. They are all made up to within an inch of their lives. If life is tough in this village it is certainly not reflected in these womens faces. Madsen doesnt have a hair out of place and even Christie as the grandmother is luminous.
The film is rated PG-13 for profanity and violence.
Seyfrieds appeal is hard to explain. She isnt a particularly talented actress or a very pretty one, yet she keeps landing role after role. Irons, who is the son of Jeremy Irons, makes little to no impression in this film and the same can be said of Fernandez.
The big question is why did an actress of the stature of Christie decided to participate in this film. Is this what her career has come down to in the end She still has the distinctive beauty of Lara from her days in Doctor Zhivago and the acting talent is still on display. So why squander it in a role like this one
Red Riding Hood is a movie that makes you wonder why was it made. The concept and the execution both scream failure, and that is what it is. There is some nice scenery and the photography of the red cape against the bright white snow is effective, but the story and the acting drag it all downhill.
I scored Red Riding Hood a fairy tale told 4 out of 10.
