From Twilight's director Catherine Hardwicke comes a retelling of the classic Grimm's fairy tale "The Little Red Riding Hood." Starring Amanda Seyfried as Valerie, a young girl living in a small medieval village called Daggerhorn, and Shiloh Fernandez as Peter the woodcutter, the film will leave Twilight fans with plenty of similar comparisons which is not exactly a good thing.
The plot itself is similar to the fairy tale itself: Red Riding Hood, is Valerie. There is grandmother who gives Valerie her infamous red hooded-cloak, the delicious baked goods, and the infamous forrest in which Red Riding Hood must journey through to get Grandmother's House. Add into the mix a broodingly handsome woodcutter, Peter, and another broodingly handsome wealthy young man, Henry (portrayed by Max Irons) and you get a Twilight-esque love triangle à la Jacob/Bella/Edward.
The film begins with Valerie and Peter as children, as Young Peter brutally murders a white rabbit. Fast forward several years, as Valerie and Peter are now teenagers frolicking in a beautiful meadow (kind of like that other meadow that Edward Cullen glitters and shines in). But their romantic moment is soon cut short with the arrival and announcement of Valerie's engagement to Henry. Valerie is less than happy to find out that she will be forced to marry someone that she doesn't love, but lucky for her trouble hits Daggerhorn not long after. "The wolf is back!" cries one of the villagers. And by wolf, I am not talking about the Big Bad Wolf from the fairy tale. No, Catherine Hardwicke chose to make Jacob Black make a special guest appearance in this movie. Well, not really. But the "wolf" referred to by the villager is actually a werewolf. Turns out the first victim to bite the dust is Valerie's younger sister, Lucy. It is also revealed that it's not only just a full moon, but a blood moon, in which any villager bitten by the wolf then will be turned into a werewolf themselves. Enter Gary Oldman's character, Father Solomon who decides to come and seek a vengeance he has against the werewolf as well. To make matters worst, Father Solomon adds that "the wolf is someone who lives in this village." Thus begins the mystery of who the wolf is, and who is to be trusted.
I must admit that I initially went to see this movie because I wanted to know who the wolf is. The trailer obviously pits the wolf as Valerie's love interest, the dark but good-looking Peter. But the only other character heavily featured in the previews was Max Irons' character, Henry, so I thought that maybe the wolf was him. Nonetheless, I went in to see the movie expecting it to either be extremely obvious as to who the wolf was, and was proven to be wrong. Though I was able to guess who the wolf was halfway through the movie, it was still a fun ride to watch the wolf terrorize the villagers of Daggerhorn and watch Valerie's struggle to figure out which person in her life is the murderous creature.
While engaging, the movie was not exactly great. The script by David Leslie Johnson wasn't exactly memorable or good, and the plot was a bit flimsy in my opinion. Shiloh Fernandez did a decent job at playing the role of Peter, but Amanda Seyfried was a complete disaster. I feel that she does the same exact thing in all of her movies. Flash those big frog-like eyes of hers and mumble a few lines and call it a day. The true star of this show however, is Max Irons. The son of Jeremy Irons, Max is a relative newcomer and true breakout star of this film. I enjoyed his performance and thought that he was the one redeeming factor.
Red Riding Hood, though engaging, was only so because of the mystery as to who the wolf is. And those viewers who have the mystery all figured out halfway through will find themselves sitting there asking "When are they just going to reveal it already?!" With subpar performances (besides Max Irons), and a lackluster plot, this movie is passable.
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