Red Riding Hood: Film #71 of Film 365

Thursday 8th September 2011

Director: Catherine Hardwicke
Year: 2011
Stars: Amanda Seyfried, Gary Oldman, Billy Burke, Shiloh Fernandez, Max Irons, Virgina Madsen, Julie Christie

Unlike most holidays, our trip to Canada involved lots of movies. This was primarily because we went to Toronto for the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF), and what's a film festival without watching some movies? So there are a fair few movies for me to blog about over the next few days (weeks?), but my first holiday movie was actually one I watched on the plane.

I had wanted to see Red Riding Hood for a while, primarily because the trailer made it look, well, cool - and very stylised, which I tend to like. I had read a few less-than-positive reviews though, so started to watch it with a slight feeling of trepidation. Valerie (Seyfried) is a young girl who lives in a small village that is terrorised by a werewolf. The werewolf isn't the only problem- Valerie has also fallen in love with a woodcutter, but is engaged to somebody much richer.

At first I wasn't sure why this didn't quite work. There's a not-terribly bad story here, and it does indeed look quite stylish. The problem is, there's just not enough plot for an hour and a half movie. It probably would have made a great 45 minute TV episode, but it just felt like it dragged. An achievement for what is, after all, a pretty short movie!

Rating: 3 out of 5

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About Me

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I live in Bristol with my husband Dan (who I married in July 2007), my son Joe (born 2012) and daughter Jess (born 2015). I work at UWE (the University of the West of England) in Bristol as a Research and Open Access Librarian. I'm orginally from Exeter, so moving back to Bristol is a bit like coming home - especially as I studied for my undergraduate degree here (also at UWE). I love travelling and movies, although I get to do a lot less of both since the birth of our children. Although we have still managed to fit in holidays to the Isles of Scilly, Chamonix and a summer in California since Joe was born.