Red Riding Hood

Red Riding Hood stars Amanda Seyfried as Valerie, a naive yet flirtatious 16 year old who is in love with a bad boy.  The bad boy in question is Henry played by Shiloh Fernandez.  Henry fills Valerie’s mind with thoughts of running away for a better life beyond the small village that she lives in.  An obstacle impeding her from running away is the werewolf that frequently digests the town’s inhabitants.  The werewolf seems to be attracted to Valerie and wants her for his or her own selfish reasons.  The climax of the film occurs when we finally learn the identity of the werewolf.

The little charm this film has derived from another product directed by Catherine Hardwicke, the director of Twilight.  Catherine uses the same love triangle idea that she invented for Twilight.  Valerie has two different men to choose from and whoever she chooses; the other one ends up brokenhearted.  None of the characters in this film have any personality.   The film relies solely on its audience being captivated by the love triangle between Henry, Peter, and Valerie.  The director and cast expect you to know the faerie tale of Little Red Riding Hood but knowing that story doesn’t help make the film more engaging or interesting.  The love triangle was inserted into the film to attract young girls who also enjoy the men of the Twilight Series.  The film’s charm is supposed to be the love triangle but for me, the charm comes from trying to figure out who the werewolf of the film is.  I love the idea that there are so many possibilities as to who the werewolf can be.

The problem with this film is that its selling point is the love story element and not the mystery of who the wolf is.  Younger audience members will no doubt enjoy this film but I feel the main characters have no personality thus making the film drag and hard to sit through.  Enjoyable as the mystery is, it doesn’t save the film from cookie cutter characters and a dim premise that would’ve been more enjoyable if its filmmaker had used more originality.