Susan Granger’s review of “Red Riding Hood” (Warner Bros.)
Now that “Twilight” fans are divided into Camp Edward and Camp Jacob, director Catherine Hardwicke seems to have become besotted by werewolves, collaborating with screenwriter David Leslie Johnson to make this supernatural re-imagining of Charles Perrault’s medieval fable even darker, filled with superstition and religious paranoia.
For decades, the people of the rural European hamlet of Daggerhorn have appeased the local werewolf who prowls under the full moon by offering the beast a monthly livestock sacrifice. But under a blood red moon, the wolf gobbles the older sister of Valerie (saucer-eyed Amanda Seyfried), whose parents – Cesaire (Billy Burke) and Suzette (Virginia Madsen) – have arranged for her to marry the wealthy blacksmith Henry (Max Irons). But Valerie’s in love with brooding Peter (Shiloh Fernandez), a poor woodcutter with a troubled past. Meanwhile, tyrannical werewolf hunter Father Solomon (Gary Oldman), a lycanthropy expert dressed in a cleric’s robes who arrives with a multi-ethnic entourage and elephant-shaped torture-chamber, warns that this beast takes human form by day, so it could be anyone. No one is above suspicion in this convoluted whodunnit, yet, somehow, Valerie seems to have a unique connection to the murderous creature. As for the sinister scene between Valerie and her eccentric grandmother (Julie Christie – in dreadlocks), it has become a dream sequence – and Valerie doesn’t just wait to be rescued by a Prince Charming, she figures it out for herself.
Obviously comfortable dealing with teenage girls’ emotional coming-of-age dilemmas (“Twilight,” “Thirteen,” “The Nativity Story”), that’s where Catherine Hardwicke focuses her attention, along with her background in production design, and the most memorable image she creates is Valerie wearing her signature crimson cloak, often photographed in shimmering snow from high aloft. But that’s really not enough, especially since the melodramatic script never makes much sense and chemistry is entirely lacking between the heroine and both of her suitors.
On the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10, “Red Riding Hood” is a tepid, twisted 4, just one of many live-action fairy tales set to debut in the coming months.
