Rich’s Quickie: Too much of some things and not enough of others makes for a disappointing remake.
Wolf: Universal literally owns our classic monster legacy: Dracula, The Mummy, Frankenstein, The Invisible Man, even The Creature From The Black Lagoon (all of which I hope get an updated treatment, eventually). I was pretty pleased with the casting when I first heard of this 2010 remake of THE WOLFMAN, and was even happier when it was rated R – you just can’t have a story about a guy turning into a beast who rips people to shreds and make it convincing as a PG – or even a PG-13 — movie. And obviously the filmmaking standards have improved greatly since 1941, and it shows onscreen; scenes are lush, makeup is superb, effects are great, the music is full as the moon itself.
Aw, man! However, the writing and the story have issues. In retreating this classic, Universal has lost the SOUL of the movie, the whole point of it; and this remake comes off as an excuse for gore and a wolfman fight. In fact, even the gore seems a bit silly and not gritty at all; nearly Monty Python-esque in its depiction — with severed fingers, heads and limbs taking center stage at times, in a too-obvious way.
Benicio Del Toro’s Lawrence Talbot is another obvious problem (as is most of the principal players, well-cast as they are). The 1941 Talbot played by the legendary Lon Chaney Jr., was a big bear of man, with a ready laugh, easy smile, and eye for the ladies. It was saddening to see such a man cursed in way that made him a danger to everyone around him, and his turmoil was to either do something to be cured, or to find a way kill himself.
But Del Toro is a sad and dour man from the get go, with very little charm. Additionally, kudos for some well-intentioned back story, but it in the end, it’s a bit much to swallow; as a child, Lawrence saw his mother just after she committed suicide, and kind of lost his young marbles. His father (played by Anthony Hopkins, in the same manner that he’s played his last nine characters), puts him in an insane asylum for a while to help cure him of whatever is ailing him, thus creating an estrangement between them that lasts well into adulthood. As a grown man living abroad, Lawrence returns to his ancestral home upon hearing that his brother has gone missing (in a letter from that brother’s fiancée’ Gwen Conliffe, played by Emily Blunt). He finds that his brother has been killed by a wild beast. We eventually come to find that actually his mother did not kill herself; she too was killed by a beast – his father, who was/is himself a werewolf (having previously been bitten by a “wild boy’ in an ancient cave). Since that horrible night when Sir John Talbot lost control and killed his own beloved wife, he has since had his trusted manservant Singh (played by Art Malik), lock him up every full moon for the last 25 years. Additionally, the only time this plan failed was recently… when he also accidentally killed his own son, Lawrence’s brother, Ben. He has also been very naughty, and attacked several villagers including his other son Lawrence, making him into a wolfman as well. Blunt’s Conliffe sticks around to tend to Lawrence’s wounds (which heal remarkably fast), and a bond develops between them (also remarkably – and unbelievably – fast).
Due to his rapid healing the superstitious villagers are onto this whole wolfman business, and after the first bloody full moon, capture Lawrence and back he goes into that same insane asylum wherein he’s “treated” once again in all manner of electroshock therapies and other nasty stuff. When none of this works and he escapes, he stays far away from Conliffe… until the night of the full moon, when he seeks out his own father, and learns the whole shocking truth of his family history. Strangely, even though devoted to his doomed wife and having locked himself up for 25 years, Sir John now suddenly LOVES being a wolfman, and wants to let the beast run amok (even though the few times he did he attacked and killed members of his own family, including most recently his manservant Singh). He also has a sadistic streak, beating his only living son up a bit before the full moon rises, and both become beastly. WOLFMAN FIGHT! The younger teaches the elder a lesson (rather easily, too), and runs off into the woods… and into his “love” Gwen Conliffe. Strangely, even though he barely knows her (and his father couldn’t contain himself from killing his own wife, son, and lifelong friend), Conliffe talks him down and holds him off long enough for the local villagers (led by Mr. Smith himself, Hugo Weaving), to shoot him full of silver holes – but not before, of course, LawrenceWolf wounds Weaving… SEQUEL! Ugh.
With such a confusing and unnecessary back story, Sir John’s pointless flip flops, a barely-there love story that contains a beast that shouldn’t be contained, and editing in the first third of the movie that reduces scenes to two-minute clips that don’t quite have much to do with one another (things pick up after Lawrence gets bitten), THE WOLFMAN is just plain disappointing.
Movie Grade: C
MPAA: Rated R for bloody horror violence and gore.
Director: Joe Johnston
Writers: Andrew Kevin Walker (screenplay), David Self (screenplay), and Curt Siodmak (1941 motion picture screenplay)
One of my favorite films when I was growing up was the 1941 film starring Lon Chaney Jr. as Lawrence Talbot, a regular guy who just was in the wrong place at the wrong time.
