Review: The Wolfman

Howling Wolf

I find it hard to believe myself that I made it nearly a month and a half into 2010 without seeing a new film. Much of my time at the beginning of this new decade was spent playing catch up to some late release 2009 films that were just making their way into Chicago. I know that I meant to get to films like The Book of Eli, Daybreakers, The Edge of Darkness, and a number of other films, but they all went by the wayside while I indulged in seeking out films like The Last Station and repeated viewings of Avatar. But I finally get to one, and this was also a film that I had been looking forward to seeing, despite the production being plagued with problems. Well the long wait for a 2010 release is over. Unfortunately, the wait for a good film for the new year is still on, as this film is arguably one of this early year's greatest disappointments.

Benicio Del Toro, certainly looking the part, is the wolfman himself, Lawrence Talbot, a Shakespearean actor who returns to his ancestral home in response to the death of his brother. He reunites with his estranged father (Anthony Hopkins) and starts a connection with his brother's fiancee (Emily Blunt). While digging up information about his brother's death, he is bitten by the wolf, which of course leads to him becoming a werewolf himself. Hugo Weaving also steps in as Detective Aberline (yes, that Aberline) who is determined to solve the mystery of these brutal killings.

I am a big fan of the original film, and while I wasn't expecting this to be a carbon copy of the original, I was expecting a film to have some kind of cohesiveness while paying some kind of homage to the original film. Director Joe Johnston and writers Andrew Kevin Walker and David Self do provide some interesting character moments and a few sparse, well played action sequences. However, most of the time spent in this film is given to a cluttered mess of conflicting tones and themes. Most of the action that happens lacks energy and overindulges in a bloody, gory scene (seriously folks, this is one violent film). The weak story, cluttered with flat characters, is joined by distracting editing, dark lighting, a bombastic score from Danny Elfman, and a showdown climax that is just ridiculous.

This cast is very talented, but they do nothing in this film. Literally. It feels like everyone just showed up to their costume fitting, went right to the set and read their lines from cue-cards. Del Toro phones in a bland performance that never once capitalizes on the emotional and psychological complexities that a werewolf story can provide. This is one of his worst performances. Hopkins also goes bland here, while also going in and out of a cockney accent. Blunt is virtually wasted in a nothing performance and Weaving, while providing a few good moments with his character, mostly seems like he's doing Agent Smith with an English accent.

Despite some people feeling this would be a bad movie from the get-go, I was really looking forward to it. However, those involved wasted an opportunity to create a moody, stylish Wolfman film for the new age and instead made a film that's light on scares, entertainment and intelligence. The cast is talented but useless, and the execution takes all the wrong turns. Hopefully next week's newest 2010 release, Shutter Island, won't be as big a disappointment as this was. *1/2 / ****; GRADE: C-