The Wolfman (2010)
Country: UK/USA
Production Company: Universal Pictures presents in association with Relativity Media, a Stuber Pictures Production
Producers: Scott Stuber, Benicio Del Toro, Rick Yorn, Sean Daniel
Executive Producers: Bill Carraro, Ryan Kavanaugh
Co-Producer: Stratton Leopold
Director: Joe Johnston
Screenplay: Andrew Kevin Walker and David Self, based on the motion picture screenplay by Curt Siodmak
Cinematographer: Shelly Johnson
Editors: Dennis Virkler, Walter Murch
Production Design: Rick Heinrichs
Art Director: Andy Nicholson
Special Make-up Design: Rick Baker
Music: Danny Elfman
Costume Design: Milena Cononero
Sound Editors: Per Hallberg, Karen M Baker
Sound Designer: Peter Staubli
Visual Effects: Rhythm & Hues, The Moving Picture Company, Double Negative, Peerless Camera Company, Plowman Craven and Associates
Special Effects: Paul Corbould
Stunts: Vic Armstrong
Titles: Neil Huxley/yU+co
Length: 102 mins.
Budget: $120 Million
Locations: Chatsworth House, Derbyshire; Castle Combe and Lacock, Wiltshire; Black Park and Stowe Gardens, Buckinghamshire; Bourne Woods and Richmond Theatre, Richmond, Surrey; the Old Royal Naval College, Greenwich.
Cast: Benicio Del Toro (Lawrence Talbot), Anthony Hopkins (Sir John Talbot), Emily Blunt (Gwen Conliffe), Hugo Weaving (Inspector Abberline), Art Malik (Singh), Geraldine Chaplin (Maleva), Antony Sher (Dr Hoenneger), Clive Russell (MacQueen), Cristina Contes (Solana Talbot), Simon Merrells (Ben Talbot), Michael Cronin (Dr Lloyd), Roger Frost (Reverend Fisk), Nicholas Day (Colonel Montford), David Sterne (Kirk), David Schofield (Constable Nye), Rob Dixon (Squire Strickland), Olga Fedori (Maleva's daughter), Lorraine Hilton (Mrs Kirk), Shaun Smith (Carter), Jordan Coulson (Wolf Boy), Gemma Whelan (Gwen's Maid), Mario Marin-Borquez (Young Lawrence), Asa Butterfield (Young Ben), Malcolm Scates (Butcher), Oliver Adams (Gypsy Boy), Rick Baker (Gypsy Man/First Killed), Emil Hostina (Gypsy Man/Bear Handler), Barry McCormick (Asylum Orderly).
Synopsis: England, 1991. Summoned by his missing brother's fiancée, Shakespearean actor Lawrence Talbot returns home and is reunited with his father after being institutionalized and sent away to America as a child. Discovering his brother has been found dead, seemingly savaged by a large beast, Lawrence determines to uncover the killer, only to come under suspicion himself as the murders continue and a Scotland Yard Inspector arrives in the local village.
Review: It's been a long, strange trip to the screen for The Wolfman, with director, Joe Johnston (The Rocketeer, Jurassic Park III) replacing Mark Romanek (One Hour Photo), just three weeks before principal photography (after original replacement, Brett Ratner dropped out) and faced with the daunting task of persuading Anthony Hopkins to stay on board. Originally intended for release in April 3rd, 2009, then announced as "sometime next fall", when November came we were greeted with the news that Paul Haslinger (Underworld, Death Race) was replacing Danny Elfman as composer. Along the way, $20 Million of new effects were added (ironic, as Romanek departed over budget disagreements) and finally Walter Murch (Apocalypse Now) was brought in to re-edit the original cut by Dennis Virkler (Batman & Robin, The Chronicles of Riddick). The only bright spot in all this was the surprise announcement that the film would receive an 'R' rating.
The good news is that Danny Elfman's baroque score is intact and this puppy looks gorgeous, thanks to the astute hiring of Coen Brothers and Tim Burton collaborator Rick Heinrichs (Sleepy Hollow, Planet of the Apes) as production designer. Soaked in atmosphere, Heinrichs successfully transforms Chatsworth House in Derbyshire from a model tourist attraction to a rotting hulk, draped in vines and weary with neglect. Cinematography by Shelly Johnson (Jurassic Park III) complements the design, with a steely blue/grey palette that pays sufficient homage to the black and white origins of the 1941 Wolf Man. Indeed, kudos is due to Johnston for being respectful to the source material and having the decency to attempt a grown-up remake with largely physical effects, as opposed to the usual Universal CGI kiddy-romps like The Mummy franchise and Van Helsing.
While there is two-thirds of a good movie here, things start to go wrong early, with the introduction of Hugo Weaving as Inspector Abberline, an awkward import from the hunt for Jack the Ripper, which is mentioned but carries no weight (it would have more resonance if there was a hint that Abberline had been sent up north as some kind of punishment - the film is set three years after the unsolved Ripper murders). Confusingly, the Inspector seems intent on pinning the early attacks on Talbot, despite the fact that he is clearly a victim, and was playing Hamlet on stage in London when the first deaths occurred.
But still, the rich atmosphere and the twinkle in Anthony Hopkins' eye carry us neatly through the first half, despite clunky dialogue from scribes Andrew Kevin Walker (Se7en, Sleepy Hollow) and David Self (The Haunting, Road to Perdition) and the ham-handed handling of a gypsy camp attack (which features a nice cameo from make-up maestro Rick Baker), an event that could have built slowly, with mounting confusion, but instead lurches along like the title character, violent and shaggy.
Things really take a turn for the worse when we arrive in London (which looks beautiful thanks to those extra $20 Million), with Talbot betrayed, captured and ensconced in the asylum to which he was committed as a child, following his mother's apparent suicide. Here, despite a sadistically Dickensian proto-waterboarding sequence that brings to mind the Hughes Brothers From Hell, Anthony Sher's chief doctor sports a comedy German accent straight out of Young Frankenstein and we realize with mounting disappointment that Talbot will return north for an obvious, silly and frankly embarrassing final showdown.
Johnston's lack of facility with actors (he started out as an effects designer on Star Wars, before moving on to effects art direction on The Empire Strikes Back, Raiders of the Lost Ark and Return of the Jedi), is also evident in scenes with Benicio Del Toro and Emily Blunt, where Johnston avoids close-ups of Del Toro, leaving us gazing at Emily Blunt's porcelain beauty and the back of Talbot's head as he speaks. This, along with Del Toro's glowering one-note performance means we lack the sympathy we felt for Lon Chaney (a vastly inferior actor) in the original and, in spite of Blunt's stirling efforts, deprived of emotion in the inevitable tragic denoument.
Not a total failure then and it seems odd to wish for less horror in a werewolf film, but it's tempting to imagine how a smarter director with a less troubled production and the courage of his convictions might have used the myth as a metaphor for the rot of the English upper class and given us a lycanthrope Howards End, or a gory Gosford Park, instead of this well-meaning but confused hybrid.
The Wolfman is released today, nationwide.
February 18, 2010 at 2:44 AM
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