Red Riding Hood

A town lives in fear of a werewolf, offering livestock and then one of their own when they find out that's what it wants, mix that in with a love story where a girl is being married off to someone she's not in love with. With a cast including Amanda Seyfried, Gary Oldman, Julie Christie, Virginia Madsen and more - did they really need to play the roles they did, probably not as most of the roles were limiting in development, dialogue, and character. Oh and did I mention a mishmash of other stories including hints of "Three Little Pigs" "Beauty and the Beast" and "Hansel and Gretel" - don't ask.

Execution wise, the film felt over-dramatic and probably better suited to a theatre setting or straight to dvd / tv movie.  Costumes were too on the pristine side and the village too neat and tidy. The story itself is set up too quickly - or rather all the elements and people are thrown in as soon as possible so we can get to the chases for the wolf.  The pace could slow down and develop the characters and subplot more. Sometimes we're confused if the werewolf the main story or is it the love story. In either case, both need more development. Even the soundtrack felt muted and forced.

There are numerous of obvious red herrings to the werewolf's identity, that the real werewolf's identity reveal is almost a surprise (it kind of isn't once people start dying or being around when the werewolf appears). I'm curious to find out how early people figured it out.  My personal pick for the werewolf?  Sorry everyone, grandmother would have made an excellent werewolf.  Back to the love story, it feels mostly superficial, Henry doesn't really try to win her over and Peter's got some glazed over lines like dancing with another girl in order to 'force' her away. 

Ending-wise it's too neat and typical, Valerie's voiceover goes on and on explaining what ended up happening after the showdown dragging out the ending.  The faster pace we had before is what we need here instead.  Sounds like a movie to avoid right? This film could be much darker still and stronger if it focused more on the characters to increase tension and motivations. Despite everything I've commented, it's actually watchable when there's not much else on. On a cheap Tuesday movie night, there could be worse choices.

2.5/5