Red Riding Hood

Starring: Amanda Seyfried, Gary Oldman, Billy Burke, Shiloh Fernandez, Max Irons, Virginia Madsen, Lukas Haas, Julie Christie
Directed by: Catherine Hardwicke
Rating: PG-13
Genre: Horror, Drama, Mystery
2011

Times Seen:
Tim: 1

Summary: A young woman (Amanda Seyfried) and the rest of her villagers struggle to survive after a werewolf terrorizes them.

Review:

Tim: I suppose at its heart, this movie was a good idea. I like the concept of taking a fairy tale we all know (in this case, "Little Red Riding Hood") and making it a fully fleshed out story. I like the idea and I think there were some good elements at place here. Catherine Hardwicke did a decent job of bringing this fairy tale to life. Unfortunately, the results are just too forgettable to be considered very good.

The whole movie just felt a bit too melodramatic and absurd. At the heart of the movie is a love triangle between Valerie, a woodcutter, and a wealthier man to whom she's betrothed. This was supposed to make her character more complex and interesting, but I could never get into this plot point. Valerie isn't exactly a fascinating character, and the whole thing seemed forced and cliched. I never cared about a single character in this film, so it was hard to care about anything else that happened. That's the film's greatest flaw. At the beginning of the film, we don't get the opportunity to identify with or care about any of the characters. Everything that comes afterwards was undermined by this.

Amanda Seyfried was decent, but not great as Valerie. This film really needed a fantastic performance here. Unfortunately, it got a lackluster one. I was bored by Seyfried's performance. She never made me believe her character. I think she deserves a lot of the blame for this movie's failure. I loved seeing Gary Oldman here, but I have no idea why he agreed to be in this film. Yes, the role is right in his wheelhouse and he gets the chance to ham it up in a bit of an over-the-top role. He was fun to watch, but felt like he was wasting his talents. I like Billy Burke, and enjoyed him here. It was nice to see Julie Christie as well.

I thought both Shiloh Fernandez and Max Irons were horribly cast as parts 2 and 3 of the love triangle. By their performances here, I'd be shocked if either one turned out to be a solid actor. I felt like they were cast for their looks, hoping that the largely female audience wouldn't notice that they aren't exactly great actors. I was tremendously bored with both of them, and couldn't have cared less about who Valerie ended up with. This aspect of the film was veyr weak.

The actual werewolf attacks are pretty decent. There's a few suspenseful scenes. These are good, but they certainly aren't great. With weaker characters, the film needed a strong series of action/thrilling moments. Unfortunately, these scenes are decent, but none are especially memorable.

The story has a few decent twists and I enjoyed how they tried to incorporate elements from the fairy tale. However, despite having a few strong elements, Red Riding Hood is another forgettable, average movie. It felt like a film trying to capitalize on the current fairy tale/supernatural trend, without anyone involved trying too hard to make it into something special. This isn't a horrible movie or even a bad attempt. It's simply a movie that never makes a real impact. It was okay, but I really don't have too many positives to list.

Rating 1-10
Tim's Rating: 6



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