Review of “The Wolfman”
Despite the hairy production process, Universal Pictures has managed to rescue a half decent chiller in this remake of the 1941 classic B-grade Wolfman that starred Lon Chaney as the man turned beast. With a delayed release caused by producer-director battles over budgets, a sacked director (Mark Romanek), weeks of re-shoots and re-editing, there was always a risk that this would emerge a beast of a film – half director’s vision, half producers demand, and wholly a film made by committee. Yet the story hangs together surprisingly well, even if the lead, Benicio Del Toro, looks utterly bored and wooden throughout.
Del Toro (who has given us some truly memorable roles in 21 Grams, Traffic and Basquiat) plays Lawrence Talbot, the estranged son of Sir John Talbot (Anthony Hopkins) who returns from treading the boards in America when he hears of the disappearance of his brother Ben in a small English country town. He soon finds the truth in the form of Ben’s brutally mauled body, and starts to feel more than sympathy for his brother’s widow Gwen (Emily Blunt). Along with Detective Aberline (Hugo Weaving), Lawrence is determined to find the truth, but is himself mauled by the mysterious beast that roams and feeds on the full moon. Four weeks later – with the return of the moon to full strength – it’s Lawrence who will turn beast.
Del Toro is utterly disengaged in this role, neither physically providing the presence for the leading role nor emotionally convincing us that he is either in love with Gwen, at odds with his father, or anything other than mildly bemused by his dreadful condition. Some of Del Toro’s casualness seems to have rubbed off on Hopkins – but at least he knows how to smoulder when on auto-pilot. It’s Blunt and Weaving who save the day, she pulling off what would have been the most challenging task of showing emotional feelings for her podgy and uncharismatic leading man, and he giving the story a much needed lift in energy with his thoughtfully snappy Victorian copper. Given the film’s revised ending (note who dies and who lives - this was not the original idea) it’s clear who the producers felt were strong enough for a potential sequel.
The special effects – particularly del Toro’s bodily transformations - are excellent, and the foggy Victorian tone suitably moody. However, the whole story would have been better played out as high-budget B-grade horror, rather than trying to reach a mainstream audience…perhaps this was the argument that mauled the film’s first director?
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