Wolf

Here's a werewolf movie done with some style and some class. This may be the only werewolf-business world combination. It features effective villains played by James Spader and Christopher Plummer. I've always found Spader an easy guy to dislike, in any film.

Jack Nicholson is the lead guy, however, and is refreshingly low-key, especially for him. I don't believe he ever raised his voice in this movie, acting very subdued throughout.

There isn't as much action as you see in most modern-day horror movies but yet this is such an intense story that you don't lose interest. It's pretty good in the visual department, too, and it doesn't hurt to ogle Michelle Pfeiffer.

Even though the profanity is pretty low for a '90s film, when it's there it's needless. They could could have done this movie, believe it or not, without any and it still would have been good. I'm not complaining. I still recommend this, but not for people who are looking for an action--packed vampire film.

While driving through Vermont, New England, the middle age chief editor Will Randall (Jack Nicholson) hits a wolf with his car. He stops the car to drag the animal out of the road, but the wolf is alive and bites his hand. He goes to the doctor, takes rabies vaccine and the doctor releases him.

Will is under stress in her job since the publishing house where he works has been bought by the tough millionaire Raymond Alden (Christopher Plummer) and the employees are expecting downsizing. Will is supported by his wife Charlotte Randall (Kate Nelligan) and his colleague and assistant Stewart Swinton (James Spader).

Raymond invites Will to a party at his manor and he offers an unwanted job position in Eastern Europe to him and he learns that he had been betrayed by Stewart, who will occupy his position in the publishing house. Will also meets Raymond's rebel daughter Laura Alden (Michelle Pfeiffer).

On the next morning, Will Randall goes to his work and learns that he has acute senses and he feels more competitive and decided to fight for his job. Further he discovers that Charlotte is cheating on him with Stewart and that Laura and he are in love with each other. But Will Randall is becoming a wolf and his transformation changes completely his life.

I saw "Wolf" for the first time in 1994 and yesterday I saw this film again and I found it better and better than the first time that I saw it. The story perfectly combines drama, horror and romance, with Michelle Pfeiffer very beautiful and a great dispute among the characters performed by Jack Nicholson, James Spader and Christopher Plummer. The conclusion is open to interpretation whether the wild side of Laura Alden is transforming her or the sexual intercourse with Will Randall. My vote is eight.

Title (Brazil): "Lobo" ("Wolf")

"Wolf" is not your average blood and guts horror flick. Rather it is a high budget drama with horror overtones with a top notch cast skillfully directed by Mike Nichols.

Jack Nicholson stars as Will Randall a meek book editor whose life suddenly is thrown into turmoil when he is bitten by a wolf while driving home from a business meeting. Suddenly he begins to feel younger and more energetic and to have keener senses of smell, sight and hearing. But to his horror, he begins to experience memory black outs during which several tragic events occur. He gradually comes to realize that he is taking on the characteristics of a wolf.

At the office, Randall has just been fired from his job by owner Raymond Alden (Christopher Plummer) and his place taken by the arrogant brown nosing Stewart Swinton (James Spader). Randall also learns that Swinton has been having an affair with his wife (Kate Nelligan). At that time he meets Alden's beautiful but self-centered daughter Laura (Michelle Pfeiffer) and naturally they become involved (Who wouldn't howl at the moon after spending the night with Michelle Pfeiffer?).

When Randall's wife is murdered, he begins to fear the worst so he turns to Laura for help in helping him to subdue his urges. But is he guilty murder? We have to wait to find out what's really going on until the last part of the film.

The performances by all cast members are top notch. Nicholson as usual stands out as the tragic, doomed Randall. Pfeiffer (who is a much better actress than she is given credit for) is excellent as Laura. Plummer is suitably oily and manipulative as Alden and Spader is really good as the over ambitious Swinton. Look for David Hyde Pierce in a small role as Randall's assistant and look real close for David Schwimmer as one of the cops who tries to arrest Randall at the zoo.

An off beat but different sort of horror film.

I saw this film when it first appeared in the cinema and I can remember my disappointment at the wolf scenes. Now, five years on, I realise what a gem this film is.

The cinematography is very well done, providing slick shots throughout which still hold their own against current films. The acting is very good with James Spader oozing sleaziness with every single look, Michelle Pfieffer playing a hardened woman, and Jack Nicholson being, well, Jack Nicholson, but hairier.

The opening sequence grabs you straight away, stock shocks, but they work fantastically, from then on I found myself impressed on just about every following scene.

Nicholson is very good at underplaying the beginning of his transformation as he starts to discover his newly heightened senses, but he comes into his own when his powers bring him new found confidence and self assurance.

Some of the wolf effects are a little cheesy, and the appearance of David Schwimmer playing a cop caused me to flash into Friends mode - he even has a friends-like line, could he _be_ anymore Ross like? Aside from these little niggles the film has an excellent love story with fantastic interaction between Nicholson and Pfieffer with some wry dialog. It's got great lighting and very good cinematography throw in a superb Morricone soundtrack and a cool ending and you've got a great film.

Even in the confines of big skyscrapers, it's a dog eat dog world.

Simply put, WOLF is a class act. The director is legendary. The acting is subdued yet electrically charged. To top things off, the Hitchcock style score by Ennio Morricone draws you in from the opening credits straight to the end. WOLF is such a unique installment to the werewolf tradition that it easily bursts through the bars of any category you place it in.

Mike Nichols boasts a career that is a study in itself. After artistically defining a post-war generation with the Graduate in 1967, he has been very selective with his projects behind the camera. Twenty-seven years after the Graduate, the veteran Nichols rises to the challenge of weaving a wide range of adult themes into one coherent werewolf movie. Stylistically, the shots and cinematography featured in the movie hearken back to an adventurous 70's spirit that has been abandoned in modern film. The combination of quick and slow zooms, along with expansive cuts of open spaces make the 125 minute story both rhythmic and engrossing.

WOLF is not the conventional werewolf movie we're accustomed to seeing, as the film is meant to induce a snicker as opposed to a scream. Although the scare factor takes a marked jump towards the end, the movie isn't really a horror movie. It focuses mostly on the canine tricks of corporate power, double-crossing, and primordial carnal knowledge. In this respect, James Spader upstages Jack Nicholson and almost steals the show.

Still, there's all the good stuff that comes with werewolf movies. The curse is a contagion transmitted by a bite. Who's the monster, and what makes the monster fearsome? What happens when Jack starts to turn? How far can Mike Nichols upset our comfort level? For all those horror fans out there, the make-up team did a superb job, no doubt influenced by the disjointed transformations of the original black and white wolf-man classic.

As a telltale sign of the film's sophistication, the werewolf theme is dramatically eclipsed by the true storyline – Nicholson's over-the-hill struggles in the publishing business. In the final examination, with corporate culture in mind, WOLF tends to resemble Wall Street or As Good as It Gets more than it does the Howling or American Werewolf in London. Nichols does a masterful job seamlessly weaving canine trickery into the workplace. Jack's heightened sense of smell detects his coworker's early morning Tequila. His pointed ears pick up juicy office gossip. In addition to these scenes, WOLF introduces an innovative corporate idea – urination and marking of territory, something that every sensible dog does when he feels like it!

The only detractor from WOLF is the quick and dirty relationship between Pfiffer and Nicholson. Even though the film is billed as a werewolf movie, this relationship somewhat stands as a centerpiece. To be sure, the sparse exchanges between the two stars feature witty dialog with plenty of chemistry. But despite this potential, the relationship somehow rings hollow and gets trampled beneath the other story lines that are taking place.

Apparently Sharon Stone was offered the female lead but turned the role down. To some extent, I don't blame her. The development of Michelle Pfiffer's character in the movie was an open question mark.

The Pfiffer-Nicholson love story culminates in WOLF's unique ending. If you happen to catch this movie, you can frolic through the woods with Jack along to Morricone's synthesized arpeggios. Then determine for yourself whether the ending adds or detracts from the movie. It's been a quandary for me ever since I saw WOLF for the first time in 199(?).

JY

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