"The Wolfman" is a head rolling good time in this remake of the 1941 horror classic. It uses shadows effectively to give a feeling of the "beast within" looking out at us with haunting, glowing eyes. Set in 1891 England, the contrast between the stately courtesy of the period and the razor sharp claws of the werewolves works well. The atmosphere is dark and picturesque in the tradition of "Sleepy Hollow" or "The Nightmare Before Christmas", which makes it appropriate to have Danny Elfman (composer of all three) provide the original music.
That said, it's difficult to take some of the graphic scenes seriously with so many shock cuts and blood splattered bodies filling the screen. At times it seems more like a vision for a Roman coliseum than for a silent audience expecting gripping horror. Should we get up and cheer with each kill? Joe Johnston ("Hidalgo," "October Sky"), the director, tried to modernize the film into a flashy, faster story, but the result is an uneven mix and not enough screen time for characters that could have given the film more flare, such as Anthony Hopkins and Hugo Weaving. The film also suffers from slower moments and unimportant plot points that serve as a speed bump after so many werewolf attacks.
Anthony Hopkins is a strong point as Sir John Talbot, the resident werewolf. His son, Lawrence Talbot (Benicio Del Toro, "The Usual Suspects"), returns to Blackmoor after he gets word that his brother, Ben, is missing. Lawrence (Benicio Del Toro) doesn't react much to his father's calm and stoical treatment of Ben's death (he tells Lawrence about it heartlessly), but, of course, he hasn't been home much and doesn't like his father very much either.
Lawrence sees Ben's stripped, skeletal body and wants to solve the mystery of the death for the benefit of Ben's fiancé, Gwen Conliffe (Emily Blunt), and his own curiosity. He visits a camp of gypsy's and has a cryptic conversation with Maleva (Geraldine Chaplin), who figures as the local expert in mysterious happenings. Some of the setup to the action is unclear, but a werewolf attacks the camp in almost a comical manner, but perhaps the scene was shot from the point of view of the superstitious locals, who see the gruesome attacks as some sort of evil curse.
Lawrence gets brutally bit by the werewolf, becoming one of them. His father enjoys setting him loose in the full moon, almost as if he's training his son to be a werewolf by sending him out into the wild. Anthony Hopkins delights in the beastly form his life has taken. In the way the movie imagines them, werewolves are similar to "The Hulk". They unleash the beast within, the lawless "dog eat dog" or "kill or be killed" animal of nature. But they also inhabit ordinary people, as the beginning quote says: "even a man who is pure of heart may become a wolf." The movie questions whether we could draw a line between werewolf (as the beast within) and human (as the civil being that makes laws and has moral standards to protect its dignity). The unexplained part is Lawrence's frequent dreams of a young werewolf child. His father was originally bit by such a child during his field research into lycanthropy. Does becoming a werewolf pass along shared memories?
In an excellent scene, Lawrence is captured and taken to an asylum (doctors think he's insane for claiming to be a werewolf), where a doctor brings him before an audience on the night of a full moon. He wants to prove to Lawrence and everyone in attendance (calm scholars and students from the looks of them) that Lawrence is mad and won't turn into a werewolf. Symptomatic of the film's problems, it briefly uses situational humor when the doctor doesn't notice Lawrence turning into a snarling beast behind him. It could actually have been held a little longer to build the tension and add detail in the scene. Here we start to see a bit of favoritism by the beast. He picks out his victims more than in earlier, random killings, which also helps to obscure the line between werewolf and human.
The lead up to the ending is a bit tedious, but Anthony Hopkins has an excellent scene as he plays a piano with blood soaked fingers. Some of the best scenes are these that slowly build up to the bloody parts. One major problem with the action-slasher scenes was the lackluster special effects. Heads and arms pop off a bit too easy (to the point of comedy), and one of the transformations has a ring strangely glide off a finger. But the film is still enjoyable, especially for some of the supporting performances (Hopkins, Weaving) and visual style.
That said, it's difficult to take some of the graphic scenes seriously with so many shock cuts and blood splattered bodies filling the screen. At times it seems more like a vision for a Roman coliseum than for a silent audience expecting gripping horror. Should we get up and cheer with each kill? Joe Johnston ("Hidalgo," "October Sky"), the director, tried to modernize the film into a flashy, faster story, but the result is an uneven mix and not enough screen time for characters that could have given the film more flare, such as Anthony Hopkins and Hugo Weaving. The film also suffers from slower moments and unimportant plot points that serve as a speed bump after so many werewolf attacks.
Anthony Hopkins is a strong point as Sir John Talbot, the resident werewolf. His son, Lawrence Talbot (Benicio Del Toro, "The Usual Suspects"), returns to Blackmoor after he gets word that his brother, Ben, is missing. Lawrence (Benicio Del Toro) doesn't react much to his father's calm and stoical treatment of Ben's death (he tells Lawrence about it heartlessly), but, of course, he hasn't been home much and doesn't like his father very much either.
Lawrence sees Ben's stripped, skeletal body and wants to solve the mystery of the death for the benefit of Ben's fiancé, Gwen Conliffe (Emily Blunt), and his own curiosity. He visits a camp of gypsy's and has a cryptic conversation with Maleva (Geraldine Chaplin), who figures as the local expert in mysterious happenings. Some of the setup to the action is unclear, but a werewolf attacks the camp in almost a comical manner, but perhaps the scene was shot from the point of view of the superstitious locals, who see the gruesome attacks as some sort of evil curse.
Lawrence gets brutally bit by the werewolf, becoming one of them. His father enjoys setting him loose in the full moon, almost as if he's training his son to be a werewolf by sending him out into the wild. Anthony Hopkins delights in the beastly form his life has taken. In the way the movie imagines them, werewolves are similar to "The Hulk". They unleash the beast within, the lawless "dog eat dog" or "kill or be killed" animal of nature. But they also inhabit ordinary people, as the beginning quote says: "even a man who is pure of heart may become a wolf." The movie questions whether we could draw a line between werewolf (as the beast within) and human (as the civil being that makes laws and has moral standards to protect its dignity). The unexplained part is Lawrence's frequent dreams of a young werewolf child. His father was originally bit by such a child during his field research into lycanthropy. Does becoming a werewolf pass along shared memories?
In an excellent scene, Lawrence is captured and taken to an asylum (doctors think he's insane for claiming to be a werewolf), where a doctor brings him before an audience on the night of a full moon. He wants to prove to Lawrence and everyone in attendance (calm scholars and students from the looks of them) that Lawrence is mad and won't turn into a werewolf. Symptomatic of the film's problems, it briefly uses situational humor when the doctor doesn't notice Lawrence turning into a snarling beast behind him. It could actually have been held a little longer to build the tension and add detail in the scene. Here we start to see a bit of favoritism by the beast. He picks out his victims more than in earlier, random killings, which also helps to obscure the line between werewolf and human.
The lead up to the ending is a bit tedious, but Anthony Hopkins has an excellent scene as he plays a piano with blood soaked fingers. Some of the best scenes are these that slowly build up to the bloody parts. One major problem with the action-slasher scenes was the lackluster special effects. Heads and arms pop off a bit too easy (to the point of comedy), and one of the transformations has a ring strangely glide off a finger. But the film is still enjoyable, especially for some of the supporting performances (Hopkins, Weaving) and visual style.