Review of The Wolfman (2010) by Chads. — 13 Feb 2010

It might be a little premature for Lawrence(Benicio Del Toro) to be seducing his dead brother's fiance, so blame it on the fog, which looks so romantic over the gray lake, it can't help but put the Shakespearean actor in the right mood to teach Gwen(Emily Blunt) the finer points of rock-skipping.

Acting coquettish like any self-respecting Victorian woman in a bustle dress, Gwen flatters the man's cleverness by feigining ignorance on the physics of skipping a stone, a pretense for physical contact, as the wolfman lends a guiding hand to her delivery.

While romance enmeshes itself in "The Wolfman"(it's a Victorian period piece, after all), the movie doesn't forget that the genre a monster is traditionally affiliated with is horror, so Lawrence does a lot more killing than kissing.

Although the sun never shines in "The Wolfman", the shadows and fog fail to create an atmosphere of dread, or even a minimum of suspense, despite the unrelenting pall that hangs over everything.

But there is blood, not glitter on the monster. All those gratuitous shots of the moon are for the werewolf, not lovers. Unlike that moonbeam Bella, Gwen doesn't love Lawrence past the point of rationality where she'd want to be his wolfwoman.

That's how the moviegoer can tell "The Wolfman" is more of a guy's movie. It's not "Twilight", but the Victorian setting makes this handsomely photographed film seem like a Merchant Ivory production when compared to "Saw" and its ilk.

That's not a bad thing. Sitting through "The Wolfman" is not torture. But the nineteenth century trappings almost renders the blood and gore benign.