There is very little to like in Catherine Hardwicke's latest offering. She does have a good casting concept, however, with Julie Christie, Virginia Madsen and Amanda Seyfried as three generations of the same family. There is a distinct resemblance among them. But this marvelous potential is pretty much wasted. Gary Oldman carries his weight well as Father Solomon, a priest with colorful trappings who comes to the village to destroy the werewolf who threatens it. Billy Burke is very interesting to look at as the title character's father but he too is given little to do. Seyfried and her romantic leads (Shiloh Fernandez and Max Irons, who looks and sounds nothing like his famous father Jeremy) get to look pretty and add another notch to their youthful resumes. There is no suspense at all despite the formality of medieval villagers fearfully wondering who among them is a wolfman in disguise. It's all very similar to another bloated, boring, CGI-dependent medieval fantasy from the 90's: "Dragonheart," which also featured Julie Christie in a matriarchal context, wearing flowing garments. The camera swoops down and jiggles through the cotton candy gingerbread house-style set to the accompaniment of the usual synthesized swooshes, inducing yawn after yawn, kind of like leafing through a perfumed issue of Vanity Fair while you're waiting to get your teeth cleaned. Movies are becoming increasingly indistinguishable from the overpriced candy bars sold in the lobbies of the soulless venues in which they are shown.
Review of Red Riding Hood
