THE WOLFMAN (2010) ¢ ¢ 1/2
D: Joe Johnston
Benicio Del Toro, Anthony Hopkins, Emily Blunt,
Hugo Weaving, Geraldine Chaplin, Antony Sher
In this take on the old werewolf story, Lawrence Talbot (Benicio Del Toro) is a prominent 19th-century actor who returns to the decaying family estate after a long absence to investigate the violent death of his brother. It seems brother Ben was out walking on the moor one night - under a full moon, of course - when he was ripped to shreds by some monstrous beast. Del Toro's Lawrence is the brooding type to begin with (just like Lon Chaney Jr. in the 1941 version), and when the monster in question attacks him, too, well, let's just say it doesn't improve his disposition. The story expands on Curt Siodmak's original screenplay, and that's not an improvement, either. There's nothing going on here you can't see coming a mile away. When a doctor brings poor Larry into a lecture hall strapped to a wheelchair, to prove to his colleagues that nothing will happen when the full moon breaks overhead, what do you think's going to happen? It does. Del Toro's effectively cast as the tormented protagonist, and Emily Blunt, apparently on loan from the set of "The Young Victoria", looks great as Ben's (and Larry's) love interest. An impressively aging Geraldine Chaplin plays the gypsy woman who can see what others can't, and Anthony Hopkins cackles and purrs as Larry's domineering father, who's hiding a terrible secret of his own. The older "Wolf Man" worked because of its narrative simplicity, shadowy atmosphere, Chaney's anguished performance and that famous lap-dissolve camerawork. This movie's noisier, bloodier, more elaborate and more technically advanced. But it's not a better film.
