Red Riding Hood is supposed to be, I assume, a scary re-telling of the famous fairy tale. It looks more like director Catherine Hardwicke trying to stick it to Summit Entertainment for firing her from directing the rest of the Twilight films. Red Riding Hood is visually striking but lacks any shred of substance, story, character development, realistic costumes, and logic.
Hardwicke’s stylistic filmmaking really tricks you into thinking you are watching something great. There are epic shots of tall trees in the forest, swooping overhead shots of mountains, stark color palettes, and very detailed art direction. But even the visual aspects have problems, namely the styling of the actors. It appears as if this takes place in medieval times with men drinking mead, women wearing corsets, wood-cutting being a career, grandmothers living in the middle of the forest, and a monster terrorizing the village a la Beowulf. Or something. If this is the case, then everything should look like it is from this vague fictionalized time period. I could not get past the styling of Suzette (Virginia Madsen):
The photo shows from left to right Amanda Seyfried as Valerie (totally an authentic Medieval name, right?), Billy Burke as her father Cesaire (who also plays the father in Twilight, proof of what I said at the beginning), and Suzette, her mother. Unfortunately I could not find a bigger/clearer photo of Suzette. First of all, she has bleached blonde highlights. She also has heavily drawn on eyebrows, a lot of eye shadow, eye liner, mascara, blush, and lipstick. I know that everyone in a film has to wear make-up, but it is supposed to be appropriate to the setting. I’m sure there were some early forms of makeup and hair products back then, but come on, she looks straight out of 2005. Also, it was snowing for almost the entirety of the film and everyone is running around in thin, light clothing.
That was really the only point I wanted to make. There isn’t much more to say about this sad attempt to remake Twilight with a slightly different cast of characters and plot. Of course it has to be a werewolf and not a wolf in this version. Of course there has to be an inappropriate love triangle where the girl can’t choose between two equally horrible men (but they’re attractive, so it’s okay!). Of course girls have to love monsters that could kill them. And Daddy issues. And of course the main girl has all these special abilities for no apparent reason and is otherwise a completely flat, bland character. Thanks, Hardwicke, for continuing the tradition of female directors (except for Kathryn Bigelow) making terrible films that perpetuate all the negative stereotypes about women, girls, and why filmmaking is a male-dominated industry. Keep it up and one day you’ll be just like Sofia Coppola, famous for her films Rich White People Problems: Parts 1-4.
As usual Anna…brilliantly written! Thanks for the heads up…sounds like this one should be avoided!
Great review! It’s thoughtful, well organized, informative without giving away the whole film, & insightful. It also expresses your well-considered point of view.