Dir. Catherine Hardwicke, US/Canada, 2011, 100 mins
Cast: Amanda Seyfried, Gary Oldman, Shiloh Fernandez, Max Irons
Review by Carol Allen
As female role models go, Catherine Hardwicke is an interesting director. After a long career as a production designer, she directed her first film Thirteen in 2003, when she was pushing fifty. That and her two subsequent ones, Lords of Dogtown and The Nativity Story demonstrated a strong empathy with young people. And when she was invited to direct the first of the Twilight movies, she really struck a chord with young audiences. It’s a record of which Hardwicke can deservedly be proud. It is therefore a bit sad to report that her and writer David Johnson’s take on the legend of Red Riding Hood is a disappointment.
For a start the world in which it is set is an unconvincing American version of fairy tale land, where Valerie (Seyfried), whose luxurious red cloak gives the film its title, and her family live in a simple village of thatched huts yet project the glamour and style of a fashion shoot. Valerie’s parents, played by Virginia Madsen and Billie Burke, are well groomed, well fed and young looking for a simple woodcutter’s family, despite Daddy’s unfortunate drinking habit. The villagers have for many years been preyed on by a werewolf, which they have appeased with regular monthly offerings of livestock. But when the beast decides on a change of prey and kills Valerie’s sister Lucie (Alexandria Maillot), the village priest (Lukas Haas) calls in a sort of Witchfinder General figure (Oldman), whose first task is to tell the villagers that a werewolf is actually a human being on a non full moon day, which surprisingly they don’t know – must be because there are no movies in fairytale land I guess.
The main interest of the story is then, who is the werewolf? Could it be one of Valerie’s two suitors – her childhood sweetheart Peter (Fernandez) or the man her mum wants her to marry, blacksmith’s son Henry (Irons)? Could it indeed be her granny (Julie Christie), who lives hermit like outside the village and would be a viable contender in a glamorous hippy granny competition? It doesn’t seem to occur to anyone, not even Oldman, that an easy way to find out is to do a check on who’s not home in bed on full moon night.
But then the whole plot is a bit on the silly side and the actors don’t get a lot of chance to make it convincing. Seyfried, who was so appealing in Mamma Mia, relies heavily here on her pop eyed amazed look. Haas struggles with a very undefined role which limits him to hovering on the fringes of the action looking worried, Fernandez makes like any sexy teenage boy in a movie and Twilight veteran Burke makes little impression. On the plus side Oldman brings a spot of gravitas to the role of the werewolf specialist, Christie gives us a good scary moment doing Granny’s “big eyes, ears and teeth” number and Irons (son of Jeremy) is actually rather good as Valerie’s second suitor.
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