Saturday, February 04, 2012

The Woman in Black and Passing Similarities: A Movie Review

Director: James Watkins.

Writers: Susan Hill (novel) and Jane Goldman (screenplay).

Cast: Daniel Radcliffe, Janet McTeer and Ciarán Hinds.

Viewers off to see Daniel Radcliffe in The Woman in Black will either be of one of two persuasions. They want to see some potter magic or a good old-fashioned ghost story. Here, they will be treated to both.

Certain visual framing techniques are very recognizable during the setup of this film. Although as deterring as these similarities are (they are taken from the Harry Potter films), director James Watkins does not quite prove himself just yet by simply recreating those memorable visual moments from the Prisoner of Azkaban to sate one particular type of audience. While Radcliffe is willing to let go of his past, both Watkins and Radcliffe’s character, Arthur Kipps, are not.

Kipps lost his wife during childbirth and the emotional toil he shows makes for a very pleasing performance by this lead actor. Those feelings have affected his job performance. He wants another chance at the law firm he works for, and is told to go settle the legal affairs of the recently deceased client, Alice Drablow. He does so, but he has to leave his son, Joseph (Misha Handley), and nanny behind.

The people from the remote village of Crythin Gifford do not want him around. Most of them are harbouring a secret and their silence does not unsettle the lawyer. He manages to make friends with one individual, Sam Daily (Ciarán Hinds), but he is a character that could use more screen time. Some audiences may recognize Hinds; he was in the last Potter film.

By the time Kipps heads to the old estate to do his job, the tale takes a good spin in the style of an Edgar Allan Poe novella. There is a mystery for him to solve and some clues for the audience to ponder over.

Some of the initial scares are really not needed and by the time the ghostly woman in black (Liz White) appears, that’s when the fun begins. The pacing has the feel of Poe’s “A Tell Tale Heart.” The sonic sound scape helps create some interesting moments, but when the appearance of the three wise monkeys (to see no evil, hear no evil, or speak no evil) to overstate the obvious, once was enough.

But when all these visual cues go too far to reinforce the isolationist idiom, especially with all the establishing shots of Gothic decay, some may wonder if this film could have been trimmed down. The only good use of creating dread was with the close-ups of the porcelain dolls and stuffed toys. Their blank stares add more to the product than the rot that surrounds Kipps.

With this film, there is even a dog that tries to offer Arthur companionship. That’s all that he needs to go on living and some more exploration of his personal grief, his loneliness, is needed to really pull this tale off. While the canine cannot protect Kipps from the Great Beyond, just where the little kipper had run off when the ghosts start appearing really needs to be asked. He was barking at first. And had he served his master well, could the story have ended differently? Could Kipps’ boy have received a pet?

Audiences may get more out of reading the original treatment, or seeing another version of this film. How this tale wraps up is satisfying, especially as a interpretation of Susan Hill’s novel of the same name, but it is not enough to create goose bumps. When the hairs at the back of the neck really stand up, that’s a ghost story worth praising. They were only spine-tingling this time.

Overall: 6 out of 10.

The film's homepage is here:

The Woman in Black's Official Website

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