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Red Riding Hood (2011)

Time Out rating

Average user rating

7 reviews

Synopsis

On the back of directing the first 'Twilight' movie, Catherine Hardwicke offers a similer emo-tween spin on this classic fairy tale.

Movie review

From Time Out London

Angela Carter and Neil Jordan already connected the girl in the cape, her granny and the wolf to teen sexual ferment in 1984’s ‘The Company of Wolves’, but the clear reference point for this newly suited and rebooted legend is ‘Twilight’. Director Catherine Hardwicke departed the franchise under contentious circumstances after the first part, and here revisits key story elements in medieval settings, as Amanda Seyfried’s virginal-yet-venturesome heroine (pictured) finds herself torn between romantic rivals (lusty woodchopper Shiloh Fernandez, sensitive blacksmith Max Irons) and communing with the dark side – here a cute digital werewolf.

Yes, there’s enough connection with the source’s underlying issues of repression and desire to give this reason to exist, but, boy, does Hardwicke labour in getting from fairy tale to would-be psycho-thriller. For a start, it’s hard to take any of this seriously. It doesn’t help that it unfolds on sets which reek of Ye Olde Gift Shoppe, while the plot set-up whereby the community lay out sacrifices to keep the big, bad wolf at bay are an unwise reminder of ‘The Village’. Still, at least Gary Oldman jollies things up as a werewolf-hunting prelate with teutonic sibilants and a 20-ton cast-iron elephant-shaped torture device at his disposal. Yes, you did read that right, and very odd it is too, though in a way the incongruity of such fripperies next to Julie Christie’s sinister granny and teen soap-theatrics give Hardwicke’s film a car-crash fascination outweighing its lack of real threat or suspense.

Author: Trevor Johnston

Time Out London Issue 2121: 14 - 20 April, 2011

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User reviews of this film

Thomas Noctor said...

Posted on May 15 2011 13:38 Awful Movie! A talking Wolf? Give Me a break! As bad as Twilight, lazy film utterly boring mess, avoid!

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Chris said...

Posted on Apr 26 2011 10:55 Romance? Burgeoning sexuality? Try again! this is a political metaphor. this is to the (now renamed) "global war on terror" what the alien invasion movies of the fifties were to Cold War paranoia. Complete with "enhanced interrogation techniques".

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scrumpyjack said...

Posted on Apr 22 2011 19:41 Must agree, HOOK style studio bound setting didn't work. Not a disaster (though I did turn my phone on 80 min in to check the time) Its a decent dvd watch. 5/10

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bemused filmgoer said...

Posted on Apr 21 2011 19:19 I actually didn't think this was awful, but it was spoiled by a feeling of being on a set. There's also the American accents, which seemed to jar with the setting. Amanda Seyfried was good, but Julie Christie and Gary Oldman were great fun. I didn't think it was a horror, so I'm not judging it as one, but I agree that the wolf talking was daft, the hairstyles were bizarrely anachronistic, and there was this clunky "this is a film set" feel to it. Not terrible.

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ed said...

Posted on Apr 20 2011 10:27 check your newspaper or internet for local listings for your cinema times. this is on at most cinemas with more than 1 screen, yeah?

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emma marsden said...

Posted on Apr 20 2011 08:49 really wannna know when its on as we want to see it this friday yeah .........

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ed said...

Posted on Apr 18 2011 08:49 Not bad at all. I had low expectations going in but was surprised at how interested i was with the central mystery of who the "werewolf" was. I also liked Gary Oldman, who hasn't enjoyed playing this kind of bad guy for ages and ages (on the cinema). The cgi Wolf is terrible and badly realised. Having it talk as well is a big mistake. I liked the acting overall. I was amazed at how much Max Irons look is like his mother Sinead Cusack, he is bascially Jeremy Irons with a scooby doo mask of his mother on... Hahaha. The good cast elevate this a wee bit and it was stolen by Gary Oldman, Lukas Hass and Julie Christie as the strangely secretive grandmother. Very derivative of Twilight and fails miserably as a horror... But isn't this a genre all of it's onw now...? Soft-Core Horror?

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