I watched this nearly two months ago on an Emirates flight, so my review's hardly fresh! But I did think it was worth listing, as it was much more entertaining and interesting than I'd anticipated, and of course I always love re-tellings of fairy tales (as you'll know if you ever had the misfortune to be taught narrative theory by me, lol).
Frankly, the first part of the film - at least the first quarter, if not a little more - is a bit plodding, and not very inspiring. It's a bit TV movie, and not in a good way. However, once it becomes evident that it will in fact be more than a regular re-telling of the tale with an all-too-filmic romantic emphasis - prefaced by the appearance of the flamboyant Gary Oldman character, perhaps unsurprisingly - things definitely start to pick up. From then on, the film has some genunely interesting twists and turns, and its commentary on Europe's rich history of demonising so-called witches, and the wider but complex dangers of making assumptions about people based on appearance, are worth watching. I also really enjoyed the way in which it used language as a tool - the notion that werewolves can communicate with certain humans was a nice addition to the tale, and works well to further the plot if you're paying attention (which I'm not sure I was!).
In particular, the film's approach to familial, sexual and friendship relations is refreshing and often midly surprising. This helps make the plot twists less expected, and works towards what I, at least, found quite a pleasing ending.
Just as importantly, perhaps, is that this film looks good, and I think it would be real fun to watch on a big screen, in a darkened room. It did lose something on the back of an airline seat in cattle class!
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