"Red Riding Hood," retelling the traditional fairy tale with a mature, new-age twist, appears as a mixed bag among current cinema-going options. Starring Amanda Seyfried as the Red Riding Hood Valerie, the movie makes two large departures: the titular character is in her early twenties and the wolf is a werewolf.
Red Riding Hood's medieval town can't remember a time when it was not terrified by the wolf, sating it for over a decade with tethered goats until it murders Valerie's sister. Valerie, already divided between marriage to the son of a richer family (Max Irons) and lust for her steamy young woodchopper (Shiloh Fernandez), is frightened and in mourning all at once. Then, both of her options go off to kill the wolf.
The father of one is killed, revealing a dark, forbidden family secret, and a gray wolf's head is brought back to town on a pike. Just to make sure, the local clergy and others call famed werewolf hunter Father Solomon (Gary Oldman) who educates the people on what exactly is happening. Despite his crying children and exotic foot soldiers, most of them do not believe him. They throw a gigantic bash charged with backgrounds of new age mysticism and symphonic rock ending with multiple deaths. Father Solomon proceeds to put the fear of god in everyone and things get way out of hand.
Problems with "Red Riding Hood" include structure and execution. Too many characters show up too quickly and talk to no effect. Father Solomon's soldiers, the fiancée's father and the autistic village child have no substance and appear as cannon fodder. The entire appearance of Father Solomon does little for the story other than familiarize us with what we know and give us a moral that doesn't affect us. His ironic death by the brother of the man he mercilessly killed weighs on us as heavily as a snow flake.
Related to the character dilemma, "Red Riding Hood" gave us scenes and relationships that were useless in ways that did not expand the universe. In one such instance we are told that one dead character is the father of another dead character, both of whom are dead in such a manner as to not worry anyone's development. When it comes to plot twists and diversions, we should know that coy and barely noticeable look nothing alike.
However, to the film's credit, some interesting work is done between Valerie, her father, her grandmother, and her lover. In this small circle of characters, interesting scenes are created and the roles in the original are twisted brilliantly. Valerie, if given some breathing space, is an open book of gender roles and social status. In one scene, she is put in an iron mask and observes the changing attitudes of her former companions when she is named a witch. Her grandmother and father live at the margins of society and care for Valerie at their own expense. The young woodcutter also cares for Valerie no matter what but, clothed in clichés and melodrama, you can hardly smell his motivations.
While much it seemed glossy, the medieval setting is also something to admire. Setting was executed well in this film with dramatic and standout landscapes even in the characters' imaginings of the future. Costume was well suited to characters and beautifully mundane.
Over all, "Red Riding Hood" is a movie that does a lot reversing roles and exposing perceptions and constraints on people where they live. However, it could have done it more smoothly, more stream-lined and more truthfully. Instead it went the route of popular melodrama and destroyed all hope of exposing its important bits by trying to interest a certain crowd hankering for a certain romance.
