Movie Review: Red Riding Hood

Pretty but conflicted Valerie (Amanda Seyfried) in Red Riding Hood. Photo / Supplied

Cold, endless forests, a pale, long-haired protagonist and a wild, forbidden love - Red Riding Hood must be descended from Twilight. And, directed by Catherine Hardwicke, who initiated the film adaptation of the Twilight saga, Red Riding Hood unabashedly recycles several features of the teen vampire hit.

Pretty, conflicted Valerie (Seyfried) finds herself in a deeply-embroiled love triangle. Billy Burke plays the father (as he does on Twilight). A computer-generated werewolf lurks somewhere around the town but is bound by treaty not to take human life. That treaty has been broken ... .

All luscious sets and corsets, Red Riding Hood seems, too, to be inspired by Tim Burton's recent warped take on a children's classic. The opening sequence in particular, exudes an Alice in Wonderland-like charm with the curious young Valerie chasing a rabbit through a green field.

In fact, the story has little to do with the Brothers Grimm classic. Yes, a girl wears a red cape, yes, she visits her grandmother (Julie Christie) who lives in the woods, yes a wolf has its eye on her and yes, she does utter the words "Grandmother, what big eyes you have". But this Red Riding Hood is more interested in boys than the character in the picture books.

We assume Valerie is a teenager because the story takes place at a time when women married at 15. And, if we assume that walking around in blizzards would take its toll on the skin, her mother couldn't be far into her 30s and her grandmother in her 50s.

Like the teenagers in any instalment of the Twilight saga, Valerie and her counterparts are on the tragic side of lovesick, and they speak in earnest monologues.

In another parallel, Valerie, like Bella, is torn between a dark and chiselled strong guy (Shiloh Fernandez) and a fair and wimpish artsy type (Max Irons). Both declare they will do anything to protect her. Only this time it's not the chief vampire who threatens her, it's the big bad wolf.

When the wolf takes the life of Valerie's sister, the villagers call upon renowned wolf hunter Soloman (Gary Oldman) to help them.

He warns the villagers that the beast lives among them, and could in fact be one of the people they love the most. But they refuse to believe him and continue their boisterous, pagan celebrations as planned.

The wolf strikes in what is essentially a serial murder. When Valerie finds she has a connection with the beast, she is singled out as a target, and a suspect. As her betrayer points out, she was always faster, stronger, and smarter than the rest. And now, she wears the colour of the devil.

The whodunnit plot that follows contains some surprisingly convincing red herrings. And, quite unlike the children's bedtime story (though it was arguably in the innuendo) the characters do have their way with one another - though they don't quite get the happily ever after they had imagined.

Stars: 3/5
Verdict: It's Alice in Twilight land
Starring: Amanda Seyfried, Gary Oldman, Billy Burke, Julie Christie, Shiloh Fernandez, Max Irons
Director: Catherine Hardwicke (Twilight, The Nativity Story, Thirteen)
Running time: 100 mins
Rating: M

- TimeOut