We dodged a bullet with that Mank nomination for Amanda Seyfried. She has been famous for nearly two decades now (I think we can all agree on Mean Girls as her breakout moment). She’s had a very successful career and floated around critical accolades. Veronica Mars and Big Love on TV had pockets of love. She’s sometimes forgotten in the principal cast of 2012’s Les Misérables. Seyfried is almost too good at ceding the spotlight to others. She’s the third breakout from Mean Girls. She only exists in Veronica Mars as a memory. She’s the poster for Mamma Mia! but she’s by no means the lead of those movies. Jennifer’s Body has become a cult favorite, yet Megan Fox is still the first name for that movie. She’s led several movies, however they tend to look like Red Riding Hood: forgettable trend chasing. Thankfully, Mank got her that nomination with, yes, a supporting role, but the kind of supporting role that is what everyone remembers. Without Mank, I was really worried she’d hit a Parker Posey situation where everyone agrees she’s great but never at the right time. At a still pretty young 36, it’s exciting to see where things go for her now that she’s graduated to that level. An Emmy nomination for The Dropout certainly feels more likely now that she’s campaigning as “Oscar nominee Amanda Seyfried”.
Thankfully, Red Riding Hood, Letters to Juliet, and In Time was only a phase. These are the thoroughly forgettable movies of a young-looking actress in her mid-20s who people are still figuring out how to utilize. Red Riding Hood is a relic from when studios were trying to deconstruct what made Twilight so successful. Was it the source material? Was it the young female breakout star? The male eye candy? The brooding and moodiness? The werewolves and vampires? RRH takes a couple of the pieces (hot young star, supernatural creatures) and tests it out. The movie isn’t very good. Seyfried somehow comes out of it looking fine. That performance in a better movie could’ve saved her from some of those forgettable mid-10s roles. Nothing else works though. The men in this cast are duds. Shiloh Fernandez and Max Irons have a face-blind kind of handsomeness. It turns out, I’ve seen a lot of movies with them both and remember them from none of them. Billy Burke just plain doesn’t look right in a period movie like this. There are some Oscar winners in this. Gary Oldman takes any role he’s offered. I don’t get the sense that he prepared for this the way he would’ve for other roles. And Julie Christie confirms the criticism that Hollywood has nothing for actresses over a certain age.
I’m a little torn about the production design and costuming. The set is impressive in size and some of the costumes are quite striking. They all look fake though. I was always aware that I’m watching people on a movie set wearing clothes that were just dry cleaned. With period movies you have a choice to make: make a set and clothes that look worn in or make a set and clothes so impressive that I don’t care if they are fake. Red Riding Hood falls short of both.
Finally, let me be frank. Red Riding Hood just isn’t a feature length story. There’s not much to it, and the edits that have to be made to accommodate Red being a young woman instead of a young girl only make the story sweatier. This film doesn’t offer enough for a decent Amanda Seyfried performance to save it.
Verdict: Strongly Don’t Recommend
No comments:
Post a Comment