Movie Review - Red Riding Hood

Red Riding Hood

(2011)

Warner Bros / Appian Way / Random Films : Warner Home Video

8 / 10

This is a nice update on the "Little Red Riding Hood" fairie tale.  Instead of a wolf terrorising the local village we have a werewolf.  This adds the dimension of mystery to the tale for who could be the dreaded werewolf.  The writer David Leslie Johnson and director Catherine Hardwicke do a fantastic job of playing people off people and putting them into situations where you can never quite figure out who the killer is.  This makes for quite an enjoyable movie which the audience can have a stake in; there's not many of those around today.

I also liked the fact that the writer and director kept the story in the faerie tale spirit.  The setting of the Ye Olde Village is brilliant, it gives a close knitted community that, pretty much, lives in each other's pockets.  So when it's revealed by Solomon, played by Gary Oldman, that the beast could be one of them a personal fear and distrust of neighbours starts to spread.  There is something very haunting about the village and the surrounding forest as it stands upon a bed of snow, which constantly falls from the overcast sky.  All of this just adds layers upon layers to the film making it stronger.

On the whole, I loved this film, though there are a few drawbacks which made it drop a few points.  

I don't understand why Oldman tried to do a German / Bavarian accent as the rest of the cast didn't bother.  The worst of it was, his accent kept slipping and this became annoying.

Most of the cast were excellent in their parts giving believable performances.  Though there were times when both Max Irons, who played Henry, and Julie Christie, as Grandmother, came across as lacking in substance... sometimes Henry just looked doped up... and Grandmother was as wooden as her luxurious forest home.

Then there was the music at the celebration of the killing of the beast.  We heard modern rhythms and instruments (especially synthesisers) when the musicians were playing horns and drums.  Also, the dance we see between Valerie (Amanda Seyfried) and her friend Prudence (Kacey Rohl) wouldn't be out of place in today's nightclubs... but probably not for a religious community. 

Lastly, the main sections of the story that people know and love - "Oh Grandma, what big eyes you have" and the wolf in grandma's clothing.  These are taken as two separate scenes, which I can understand, though they appear to have been thrown into the story and film and this is a waste as they are pivotal to the original story and should have been used better to draw the audience further into the tale.  I hate waste and this was an extreme waste of a good idea.

This is a beautifully written, shot, and acted film that I would recommend to all as there are elements of mystery, thriller, horror, and fantasy, as well as a pretty decent love story.  Worth a watch at least once.