The Story
Actor Lawrence Talbot leaves the stage to return to his ancestral home in Blackmoor, England after receiving news from this brother's fiancee, Gwen (Emily Blunt), that his brother's gone missing. Lawrence was sent away to America as a young boy after witnessing the death of his mother, and his relationship with his father, John (Anthony Hopkins), is nonexistent. But Gwen needs his help and because he still loves the brother he hasn't seen in decades, he returns to his family's creepy mansion.Within minutes of his arrival, Lawrence's father tells him Ben's dead, hopes he has a nice suit for the funeral, and becomes distracted by the moon. Their relationship remains strained as Lawrence tries to deal with his brother's death at the hands of either a deranged man or some sort of large beast.
Benicio Del Toro and Anthony Hopkins in 'The Wolfman.'
© Universal PicturesScotland Yard's Inspector Aberline (Hugo Weaving) shows up, fresh off of unsuccessfully heading the investigation into the Jack the Ripper murders. Aberline's a practical, logical man who poo-poos the villagers' claims of a creature roaming their woods.
Meanwhile, Gwen helps to nurse Lawrence back to health, bonding with the man who would have been her brother-in-law in an ideal world. Lawrence's recovery from the brutal attack is surprisingly quick. He feels changes in his body, the scar fades completely in a matter of days, and he begins to feel like he's spinning out of control. And he is... The beast has infected him and when the moon is full, Lawrence goes hunting humans.
The Acting
Old-school horror fans are going to get much more out of 2010's The Wolfman than those who aren't familiar with The Wolf Man of 1941. Lon Chaney set the bar high for all future werewolves with his portrayal of a conflicted man fighting against his inner beast. Del Toro, all broody and angst-filled, fits near perfectly into the part of Lawrence Talbot, though just a tad more emotion might have helped warm the hearts of a few Del Toro fence-sitters into totally embracing him as the wolf man.Fortunately for the film, Del Toro's surrounded by three actors who do draw the audience in. Emily Blunt's Gwen is a beautiful, innocent yet strong woman who finds herself falling for her dead boyfriend's brother. Blunt looks ethereal dressed up in 1800's attire, yet under the corsets there's a tough inner core to Gwen that Blunt makes sure shines through.
Blunt's great, but it's really Hugo Weaving and Sir Anthony Hopkins who save the day (or night) for The Wolfman. Hopkins plays John Talbot as quietly mad, chewing up and spitting out the scenery with such flair as to make this Wolfman more John Talbot's show than Lawrence's. Likewise with Weaving's performance. Weaving doesn't stomp around acting all authoritative as this renowned Scotland Yard inspector. Instead, he's quiet, controlled, and a complete scene-stealer.
Benicio Del Toro in full wolf man mode.
© Universal PicturesThe Bottom Line
Loved the production design, the cinematography, costumes, and Rick Baker's fantastic furry make-up, but The Wolfman overall didn't leave me howling with joy. It's not as deep, scary, or fast-paced as it needs to be to really grab hold of the audience. Action scenes overwhelm character development, though Johnston and screenwriters David Self and Andrew Kevin Walker do try to build the relationships before everything gets all wolfie. Preview audiences forced cuts in the first section of the film that lopped off much of the relationship development, and its loss is a real shame.It also doesn't help that the score is too intrusive/predictable and that a few of the more important special effects were on the level with what we had to endure in another recent film with wolves, New Moon. Now, I'm not referring to Del Toro's transformation into a wolf man - that was brilliantly done - but both the major chase sequence through the streets and over the rooftops in London and the final battle are extremely disappointing, executed poorly enough so as to jar you out of the movie. Both critical scenes were visually off, and that's too bad as most of the action sequences were handled quite well. Heads and body parts are ripped off by the rampaging wolf man, and the special effects are realistically gruesome. It's just too bad not all scenes are of the same high level effects-wise as the wolf man transformation and the bloody killing sprees.
GRADE: B-
The Wolfman is rated R for bloody horror violence and gore.
Theatrical Release: February 12, 2010
