4/27/2023 0 Comments Wolf movie![]() ![]() What emerges is an effective attempt to place a werewolf story in an incongruous setting, with the closely observed details of that setting used to make the story seem more believable. The special effects are efficient but not sensational, the makeup by Rick Baker is convincing but wisely limited, and the movie looks great, but that doesn't cost a lot of money. It is impossible to figure where the money all went, even given the no-doubt substantial above-the-line salaries. What is a little amazing is that this movie allegedly cost $70 million. ![]() The atmosphere adds to the effect it would be difficult to stage a werewolf story in a condo. The publishing house inhabits a classic old architectural landmark with an open atrium (ideal for a wolf who wants to eavesdrop), and other action takes place at the millionaire's estate, with its vast lawns and forests, its Gothic main house, and its rambling outbuildings and guest cottages. Like many Nichols movies, "Wolf" gains by surrounding the story with sharply seenplaces and details. Not much of an effort is made to convince us of their romantic chemistry they are partners mostly because they share the same enemies. The Pfeiffer character is described fairly accurately in one of Nicholson's speeches as the kind of person who puts up a hostile exterior, but when you get past that, you find a hostile interior. Of course (this is strictly my personal opinion), it is better to be a wolf than a fly. He begins to look younger and stronger, and although he fears what he may do and sometimes demands to be locked up, there is the sense that being a wolf is not com pletely unacceptable to him. Nicholson's character, on the other hand, seems to enjoy becoming a wolf. well, in spite of the fact that he's a fly. ![]() And after he urinates on the younger man's shoes, he explains: "I'm marking my territory." All of this is not quite as poignant as it might have been.Ī similar movie, David Cronenberg's "The Fly," starred Jeff Goldblum as a scientist who realizes he is gradually becoming a fly, and Geena Davis as the woman who tries to love him in spite of. "I'm going to get you," he promises Spader. The tone of the movie is steadfastly smart and literate even in the midst of his transformation, the Nicholson character is capable of sardonic asides and a certain ironic detachment. Any enemy of her father's is a friend of hers. Meanwhile, Laura, the millionaire's daughter ( Michelle Pfeiffer) becomes Nicholson's confidant. Soon hair begins to flourish around the wound, and Nicholson sleeps all day but is awake all night, and his wife ( Kate Nelligan) is caught in an adulterous affair because Nicholson is able to smell his rival on his wife's clothing. This scenario doesn't develop as office politics as usual, however, because of the strange experience Nicholson had a few nights earlier in Vermont, where he was bitten by a wolf. His replacement, a traitor Nicholson thought was his friend, is the polished young hypocrite Stewart Swinton ( James Spader, playing what can only be called the James Spader role, and playing it very nicely, too). Then a rich investor ( Christopher Plummer) buys the firm, and throws a party during which he takes Nicholson out on the lawn to tell him he is being fired. He's playing Will Randall, a soft-spoken, pipe-smoking literary man of the old school, whose authors are loyal to him. Nicholson looks tired and aging in the opening scenes. And more, because Nicholson and his director, Mike Nichols, are halfway serious about exploring what might happen if a New York book editor did become a werewolf. Less, because it doesn't provide the frankly vulgar thrills and excesses some audience members are going to be hoping for. But "Wolf" is both more and less than a traditional werewolf movie.
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