Red Riding Hood

Another SXSW is here, and this one starts off early with a midnight premiere of Red Riding Hood.  Ahem, actually we are just the "first audience to see the film" since studios like to co-opt the term "world premiere".  I guess then technically we were the "first audience to see the film after having to empty our pockets and be swept by a metal detector" as well.  Thanks Warner Bros.

The film is beautiful, in that much of it consists of images of the snowy village and close-ups of Amanda Seyfried's face.  I did get the impression that there was a driving force to create a vision for the camera.  Alas, what I didn't feel was any immersion in the plot.  There's a love triangle which barely goes anywhere, a few family secrets laid bare, and lots of suspicion about who the werewolf might be.  And of course there's Solomon, the killed-my-own-wife werewolf hunter who acts in the name of the Holy Church but of course fails to act very holy at all.  Yes, they even run through all the major points of the modern version of the fairy tale.

But all is not lost.  As director Catherine Hardwicke said before the film began, "Luckily I didn't have to have any grown men sparkle in this movie."  For that, I truly feel lucky as well.

Catch it on Netflix.

Red Riding Hood
2011, 102 minutes, directed by Catherine Hardwicke