"THE WOLFMAN" (2004) (Benicio Del Toro, Anthony Hopkins) (R) Alcohol/ Drugs Blood/Gore Disrespectful/ Bad Attitude Frightening/ Tense Scenes Guns/ Weapons Minor Extreme Heavy Heavy Heavy Imitative Behavior Jump Scenes Music (Scary/Tense) Music (Inappropriate) Profanity Minor Heavy Heavy None Minor Sex/ Nudity Smoking Tense Family Scenes Topics To Talk About Violence Minor Mild Extreme Moderate Extreme QUICK TAKE: Horror: When his brother is killed, an actor returns to his father's English countryside estate where he seeks to discover the cause of death, but is bitten by a werewolf, resulting in him becoming a monster himself, complicating romantic feelings for his late brother's fiancée. PLOT: In 1891, Lawrence Talbot (BENICIO DEL TORO) is a famous stage actor, based in New York City and internationally acclaimed for his turns as Hamlet and Richard II. Summoned back home to England when his brother disappears, he arrives at the family estate only after his brother's corpse has been discovered -- mangled almost beyond recognition. It's plain right away that Lawrence and his father, Sir John (ANTHONY HOPKINS), do not get along, and flashbacks soon reveal that as a child, Lawrence came upon his father holding his mother's body, her throat slashed. Still, Lawrence is drawn to his brother Ben's fiancée, Gwen (EMILY BLUNT), who asks him to stay on and discover how Ben died, as the local police believe the killer was either a terrible beast or a very powerful, insane man. His investigation leads Lawrence to a gypsy camp, where the mysterious Maleva (GERALDINE CHAPLIN) warns him about the legend of the beast. When he tries to shoot the werewolf that attacks the gypsy camp, Lawrence himself is bitten. The hallucinations that follow combine his childhood memories and nightmares induced by his new monstrosity. Though he's increasingly infatuated with Gwen, he decides he is a threat to her and begs her to leave. After his first night marauding as a werewolf, Lawrence wakes feeling very powerful and very guilty. He's surprised when Sir John confesses that he is also a werewolf (though you will not be surprised). Now Lawrence has to decide how to deal with his father (a serial murderer) and his own condition. Sir John advises letting the "beast go free." But Lawrence has a strong moral sense and now that he knows his mother didn't kill herself and he is not crazy (as his father led him to believe), he can also seek revenge. WILL KIDS WANT TO SEE IT? Yes, if they like gothic horror and/or action movies as this one combines elements of both. WHY THE MPAA RATED IT: R For bloody horror violence and gore. CAST AS ROLE MODELS: BENICIO DEL TORO plays a famous actor turned werewolf. In discovering the curse that has troubled his community for years, Lawrence Talbot also finds the keys to his own childhood trauma. An essentially moral man, he is also deeply disturbed, brutal when he's a werewolf and vengeful against his father. ANTHONY HOPKINS plays Lawrence's father, imperious, cruel, and self-absorbed. He abuses his children (at least emotionally), disdains his neighbors, and cultivates his own philosophy (a wild creature should be unconstrained by human civilization). He frequently carries a rifle and has a large, mean black dog. EMILY BLUNT plays Gwen, the goodhearted fiancée of Lawrence's dead brother. She looks prim, seems sensible, maintains her own business (a curios shop), and wants to save Lawrence from his terrible fate. HUGO WEAVING plays Inspector Francis Abberline of Scotland Yard, who intends to solve the spate of bloody murders and suspects Lawrence. He uses his handgun effectively. Intelligent and mostly noble, he drinks occasionally at the local tavern, and proudly matches wits against the Talbots. He's a good shot and smart tracker. GERALDINE CHAPLIN plays Maleva, the eccentric gypsy woman who knows her werewolf legends, tends to Lawrence's initial wounds, and tells Gwen how to help him. ART MALIK plays Singh, Sir John's loyal servant. He wears a turban, refers to Sikh traditions, and vows devotion to his "master," Sir John. ANTHONY SHER plays Dr. Hoenneger, whose treatments for "delusions" include plunging into ice water, straitjackets, electroshock, and beatings. CAST, CREW, & TECHNICAL INFO HOW OTHERS RATED THIS MOVIE Curious if this title is entertaining, any good, and/or has any artistic merit? Then read OUR TAKE of this film. (Note: The "Our Take" review of this title examines the film's artistic merits and does not take into account any of the possibly objectionable material listed below). OUR WORD TO PARENTS: Here's a quick look at the content found in this horror movie that's been rated R. Profanity consists a handful of minor expletives, while some classic style statues show nudity. Violence includes much flesh-rending by werewolf claws and teeth, limbs ripped off, entrails spilling, two decapitations, and much shooting with handguns and rifles. The werewolf assaults are very loud and bloody, very violent in the fast shots and wild camera movements. Those scenes, moments of peril and sights of the monsters could be unsettling, suspenseful and/or scary to viewers, especially younger ones and/or those with low tolerance levels for such material. Bad attitudes are present, as is tense family material. An occasional character drinks, a couple of scenes show secondary characters smoking pipes, and one shows a villainous doctor smoking a cigar. Should you still be concerned about the film's appropriateness for yourself or anyone else in your home, you may want to look more closely at our detailed listings for more specific information regarding the film's content. For those prone to visually induced motion sickness, varying amounts of camera movement are present. ALCOHOL OR DRUG USE Locals drink what looks like ale in the local pub. The family doctor gives Lawrence some sort of white liquid to drink. Lawrence drinks liquor while speaking with Inspector Abberline. In the tavern, Inspector Abberline has a drink. BLOOD/GORE On a general note, the Wolfman attack scenes feature repeated bloody eviscerations, two beheadings, limbs torn off, throats slit, blood splattering, spurting, and gushing, Lawrence's brother's body is stored in a meat-house, along with pig carcasses hanging on hooks. The body is horrific, with a gaunt, scared face, and flesh ripped from the bones. ("He looks like he's been eaten alive," says one observer). Lawrence as a child walks onto a terrible tableau, his father cradling his dead mother, her throat bloody and slit, a straight razor nearby. Lawrence has repeated visions of a hairless wolf-boy seen in flashbacks and nightmares, scrawny and hollow-eyed, à la Gollum, but paler and more sinewy. The werewolf assault on a gypsy camp shows colliding bodies, loud noises during these collisions, bodies slammed off screen or to the ground, bloody cuts and gashes, a bloody stump when a hand is sliced off, a couple of bloody torsos with entrails spilling out, bloody mouths as victims spit up blood (in close-up), a bloody body fallen to the foreground of a shot, and lots of frantic and badly aimed shooting at the wolf, which speeds across the screen, shadowy, growling, and very aggressive. Assaulted by the werewolf, Lawrence has deep bloody wounds in his leg, torso, and neck (each revealed in close-up). He's taken to the gypsy camp, where Maleva sutures his wounds without anesthesia. He screams in pain, and the film shows repeated close-ups of the bloody, yucky sutures. When Lawrence's fever and nightmares end, he is pale and weary and Gwen wipes his drool covered lip and he sweats. Lawrence checks his neck bite in his bedroom mirror. It is initially raw and red, then heals too quickly. Gwen tends to Lawrence's bloody lip following an assault on him by suspicious police, dabbing at the dark red. Lawrence endures repeated violent transformations into a werewolf. Close-ups of his changing hands, feet, eyes, and teeth show them deforming and crackling (not bloody but gory). Werewolf Lawrence attacks the police who have tried to set a trap. Blood spurts as he slashes at human torsos and limbs; his teeth pull and rip at flesh in close-ups; a policeman tries to shoot himself with his gun but it's empty and werewolf hits his head off his neck (lots of blood; head hits the ground in close-up); torsos are opened up to show bloody entrails; a bloody cut-off hand hits the ground, a pistol still in its grip. The morning after his first night as a werewolf, Lawrence wakes curled up in a hollow tree; his face and torn shirt are crusted with dried blood. At the asylum, Dr. Hoenneger greets Lawrence while wearing bloody white lab coat. Here, Lawrence is subjected to torture. He is strapped to a chair, dropped backwards into ice water and hooked up to electric wires and zapped, and stuck with many needles, roughly. His face is distressed, he bleeds, and he looks generally gooey. In the asylum, Lawrence hallucinates that he is onstage as Hamlet holding Yorick's skull, dripping with blood. Turning into the werewolf in the asylum, Lawrence attacks his audience of doctors (shredding bodies, lots of blood). He throws bad Dr. Hoenneger out a window, and he falls on a fence below, impaled and very bloody. Lawrence wakes in the morning under London Bridge, his face bloody. He washes his face in the river water, but he looks ravaged and bruised. Gwen does research on lycanthropy, looking at drawings of werewolves eating babies and ripping guts out of victims. Lawrence travels back home to take revenge on his father, walking for days on the moors and discovers Singh's bloody body hanging from a wall. Lawrence and his father both turn into werewolves and battle. They throw one another into walls and furniture, rip each other's chests into bloody shreds, stab each other, pull each other's insides out, and bite each other. Blood hits the walls. Sir John attacks Abberline, leaving him bloody, his neck ripped open. Lawrence kicks his father into a blazing fireplace, she he burns to death -- violently, and very actively, staggering around the room in flames. At last, he rips off Sir John's head and it hits the ground, in close-up. Lawrence chases Gwen to a cliff. She stops, falls beneath him, tries to get him to remember him, and finally shoots him with a silver bullet. He thanks her for releasing him. both of them have blood all over their faces and shirts. Abberline stands by to watch Lawrence transform back into a human (quietly), in Gwen's arms. Abberline bleeds, then looks up at the moon. DISRESPECTFUL/BAD ATTITUDE Lawrence and his father are rude to each other throughout the film, owing to their very difficult history. Sir John expects absolute loyalty from his "manservant" Singh, a relationship that is premised on inequality and racism. Sir John lies to the police, telling them Singh is on the roof and ready to shoot them. He jokes with Lawrence later that his son "is not the only one on the family who can act." When his father tells him they're both werewolves, Lawrence yells, "I'll kill you, I'll kill you." Sir john walks away casually, playing a harmonica. Lawrence yells at a gathering of doctors, "I will kill all of you!" FRIGHTENING SCENES Scenes listed under "Violence," "Blood/Gore" and "Jump Scenes" may be unsettling, suspenseful or scary to younger viewers and/or those with low tolerance levels for such material. Frequent shots of the dark sky and full moon, several stormy nights, with thunder and lightning. Ben is killed in a dark misty wood, the beast hard to see and his screams loud. Arriving at his father's home for the first time, Lawrence find squealing rats, cobwebs, creaky door, howling wind, a growling big black dog named Samson, as well as his father pointing a big gun at him from the stairway. A hairless wolf-boy seen in Lawrence's flashbacks and nightmares is scrawny and hollow-eyed, à la Gollum, but paler and more sinewy. Lawrence walks around the house, his perspective shows long hallways looking dark and scary. Lawrence pounds on Gwen's bedroom door then looms in the doorway while he insists that she leave that very night, to be safe. Lawrence explores a mausoleum where his mother is interned, her white marble statue on the coffin shiny and ominous in shadows. Lawrence explores a dark and spooky basement chamber, where he finds a chair with leather restraints, a candlelit shrine to his dead mother, and his lurking father. Sir John insists he look into his eyes, which he describes as "quite dead," since the death of his wife years ago. Lawrence returns to the estate, making his way through dark hallways and rooms (including one where the black dog hides and growls) until he discovers a bloody dead policeman in the chair by the fireplace (at first he thinks this is his father). Then he sees his father, playing the piano. GUNS/WEAPONS Sir John with rifle aimed at the door/the camera when Lawrence arrives Sir John explains the silver bullets he keeps in a trunk. Singh keeps a gun, silver bullets, and an exotically curved dagger near him at night, claiming he needs to be "armed against evil." Sir John shoots at the police to get them away from Lawrence. Policemen tie a deer to a post in the woods as bait for the beast. It pitches and groans, they wait with many guns raised, visible in a series of close-ups. Police chase Lawrence through London streets, shooting repeatedly. The policemen, gathered with their guns, are instructed by Abberline to shoot Lawrence on sight. Lawrence tries to shoot his father, but the gun doesn't work. Police chase Lawrence through woods, shooting repeatedly. Gwen shoots Lawrence dead with a silver bullet. IMITATIVE BEHAVIOR Phrases: "I'll kill you!" and "The beast will out." Sir John lies to the police, telling them Singh is on the roof and ready to shoot them. He jokes with Lawrence later that his son "is not the only one on the family who can act." When his father tells him they're both werewolves, Lawrence yells, "I'll kill you, I'll kill you." Sir john walks away casually, playing a harmonica. Lawrence yells at a gathering of doctors, "I will kill all of you!" JUMP SCENES First sequence in the dark woods features a big noise that makes Ben start before the werewolf attacks Sudden close-ups of animal heads (tiger, lion) show Lawrence's upset at coming home, as well as his father's prowess as a hunter. As Lawrence looks at his brother's body, a loud soundtrack cue and fast cut are startling. Hallucinating after his bite, Lawrence imagines the hairless wolf-boy jumping at him, then a wolf-monster jumping at him, from the foot of his bed (these are conveyed in startling cuts). Embracing Gwen in a hallucination at the asylum, Lawrence imagines the wolf coming at him - fast and loud, causing him to jump. Lawrence walks through his father's house, thinks he's found him hiding in the bedroom, and is startled by the dog, dark and loud and fast. MUSIC (SCARY/TENSE) A heavy amount of ominous and suspenseful music occurs in the film. MUSIC (INAPPROPRIATE) None PROFANITY At least 2 damns, 2 hells and 1 use of "Holy Mother of God." SEX/NUDITY Lawrence flirts with Gwen by teaching her to skip stones on the water. He leans in close to her and puts his hand on her waist. Lawrence explores a mausoleum where his mother is interned, her white marble statue on the coffin shows the shape of covered breasts. Gwen tends to Lawrence's wounds, and his POV shows extreme close-ups of her neck and pulsing veins, his view partly aroused and partly menacing. Lawrence hides in Gwen's shop, confesses to her his monstrosity, then they kiss. Gwen's shop includes a couple of naked classic style statues in the background (including what may be Pan with tiny male genitalia). SMOKING Several miscellaneous characters smoke in three brief scenes. A man smokes a pipe on the street. Assorted gypsies smoke pipes at their camp. A doctor smokes a cigar. TENSE FAMILY SCENES General note: Lawrence and his father are in conflict throughout the film and they disagree every time they meet. Arriving at his father's home for the first time, Lawrence find squealing rats, cobwebs, creaky door, howling wind, a growling big black dog named Samson, as well as his father pointing a big gun at him from the stairway. They confront one another. Lawrence as a child walks onto a terrible tableau, his father cradling his dead mother, her throat bloody and slit, a straight razor nearby. Final scene in the house is comprised of Lawrence battling his father, both as werewolves. TOPICS TO TALK ABOUT The curse of monstrosity -- is the monster also a victim? The connection between Lawrence's psychological problems (pertaining to his father) and his state of being a werewolf. . Lawrence's apparently instant attraction to Gwen -- when his brother has only just died. The depictions of gypsies and Singh the Sikh as mysterious others, with special understanding of the threat of the werewolf. The comparison of this werewolf movie to others, including the original, 1941 "Wolfman" starring Lon Chaney Jr. VIOLENCE Note: The repeated transformation scenes feature the expected close-ups of hands, knees, heels, teeth, and ears grinding into wolf form, causing great pain for the human transformed. The first scene shows the werewolf assault on Lawrence's brother Ben, with fast cuts, fast-moving shadows, and sharp and bloody teeth in close-ups. Lawrence hears children's voices and sees ghostly child-figures (him and his brother), dissolving spookily into one another to show they are dreams. Lawrence as a child walks onto a terrible tableau, his father cradling his dead mother, her throat bloody and slit, a straight razor nearby. Lawrence reports that his father put him in an asylum when he was a child, where he was strapped to a chair, cut and beaten, and received electroshock treatments. These scenes are fragmented and appear in brief child's eye flashbacks. A flashback to Lawrence's asylum treatments when he was a boy include close-ups of a scary nurse's face, a straight jacket, and white blasts to break up the sequence. The werewolf assault on a gypsy camp shows colliding bodies, loud noises during these collisions, bodies slammed off screen or to the ground, bloody cuts and gashes, a bloody stump when a hand is sliced off, a couple of bloody torsos with entrails spilling out, bloody mouths as victims spit up blood (in close-up), a bloody body fallen to the foreground of a shot, and lots of frantic and badly aimed shooting at the wolf, which speeds across the screen, shadowy, growling, and very aggressive. Lawrence chases the werewolf, shooting. It leaps on him in dark misty woods, tears at his flesh and bites his neck. The lacerations are bloody. After Lawrence is bitten, he hallucinates during several nights and days. His distorted visions include the wolf-boy from his childhood nightmares jumping at him from the foot of his bed, the wolf attack, lots of wind and a full moon, a wolf-like beast jumping at him from the foot of his bed. Policemen gathered at the Talbot estate insist that Lawrence show them his wounds. The priest swears at him ("damn you"), and Sir John threatens the cops away with his rifle, shooting it near them. He warns them Singh is on the roof and will shoot, but you don't see Singh. Policemen tie a deer to a post in the woods as bait for the beast. It pitches and groans, they wait with guns raised. Lawrence endures a violent transformation into a wolf (close-ups of hands, feet, and teeth growing and cracking). Werewolf Lawrence attacks the police with the deer. One falls hard into a pit they've built for him; they shoot wildly; blood spurts as he slashes at human torsos and limbs; his teeth pull and rip at flesh in close-ups; he slams policemen against the ground and roars; he attacks the deer, very bloody; policeman tries to shoot himself with his gun but it's empty and werewolf hits his head off his neck (lots of blood; head hits the ground in close-up); torso opened up to show bloody entrails; a cut-off hand hits the ground, a pistol still in its grip. Policemen come to the estate and throw Lawrence to the ground, beating and kicking him while Sir John watches from a distance. Lawrence is hauled off to the asylum, where Dr. Hoenneger greets him while wearing a bloody white lab coat. Lawrence is subjected to torture as he is strapped to a chair, dropped backwards into ice water and hooked up to electric wires and zapped, and stuck with many needles, roughly. Grinding wheels drop the chair into the water and create a terrible noise as he hallucinates. All of this results in bloody injuries on his face and body and a black eye. In the asylum, Lawrence hallucinates that he is onstage as Hamlet holding Yorick's skull, dripping with blood. He sees the creepy wolf-boy again, as well as visions of the werewolf. He sees his mother's statue speak to him ("You see I'm quite dead"), imagines Gwen has come to take him home, embraces her, and then sees a monster wolf come at them both and biting her (it could be him doing it). The doctor wheels Lawrence into a medical theater to be observed by an audience of doctors. He's strapped to a chair and his mouth is gagged, harshly. Hoenneger explains he will see that the night's full moon will have no effect. Lawrence knows better, and when his gag is removed, yells, "I will kill all of you!" Lawrence's transformation is violent, with more close-ups of his hands, feet, and jaw changing painfully. He then breaks his restraints and kills multiple people (the rest run screaming and staggering from the room, hampered by a locked door). At last, Lawrence attacks the bad Dr. Hoenneger, throwing him out a window so he falls on a fence below, impaled and very bloody. Lawrence runs to the roof, where he straddles a stone gryphon and howls to the moon. Policemen chase him through London streets, shooting at him. This scene goes on for several minutes -- lots of running, leaping, and falling, as well as roaring by the werewolf, screaming by bystanders, and shooting by the cops. He bites several cops, blood spurts from necks the werewolf rips open, a person is run over by a trolley car. Lawrence wakes in the morning under London Bridge, his face bloody. He washes his face in the river water, but he looks ravaged and bruised. The police come to Gwen's shop to pursue Lawrence. Abberline shows her a newspaper, filled with headlines about dead bodies and sketches of the werewolf attack, based on witness descriptions. The cops drag her away, despite her protests. A policeman shoots a mirror, thinking he's hit Lawrence (behind the shattered glass is a statue). Gwen does research on lycanthropy, looking at drawings of werewolves eating babies and ripping guts out of victims. Lawrence travels back home to take revenge on his father, walking for days on the moors and discovers Singh's bloody body hanging from a wall. Lawrence takes his father's silver bullets and loads his gun. Lawrence and his father both turn into werewolves and fight, for long minutes. They throw one another into walls and furniture, rip each other's chests into bloody shreds, stab each other, pull each other's insides out, and bite each other. Blood hits the walls. Sir John attacks Abberline, leaving him bloody, his neck ripped open. Lawrence kicks his father into a blazing fireplace, she he burns to death -- violently, and very actively, staggering around the room in flames. At last, he rips off Sir John's head and it hits the ground, in close-up. Lawrence roars at Gwen, who has arrived near the end of the father-son battle. Lawrence runs from the police, both he and Abberline appear bloodied. The police run with their dogs and guns. They shoot at Lawrence repeatedly. Lawrence chases Gwen to a cliff. She stops, falls beneath him, tries to get him to remember him, and finally shoots him with a silver bullet. He thanks her for releasing him. both of them have blood all over their faces and shirts. Abberline stands by to watch Lawrence transform back into a human (quietly), in Gwen's arms. Abberline bleeds, then looks up at the moon. Reviewed February 9, 2010 / Posted February 12, 2010

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