Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, June 18, 1994 TAG: 9406290098
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: B10 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: By MIKE MAYO CORRESPONDENT
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Both were made by respected directors - Stanley Kubrick on ``The Shining,'' Mike Nichols on ``Wolf'' - both were promoted as big-budget ``serious'' films, and both are visually striking. But ``Wolf,'' to my mind, is the better because at heart, it's a good old-fashioned horror movie. If you sit back and become involved with the story, it'll make you jump in your seat at least once, maybe twice.
In the opening, Will Randall (Nicholson) is driving his car across a moonlit rural snowscape. Through circumstances best undescribed, he's bitten by a wolf, not an ordinary wolf. His outer and inner transformations - again best undescribed - begin almost immediately. As the original, ``The Wolfman,'' put it:
``Even a man who is pure in heart
And says his prayers by night
May become a wolf when the wolfbane blooms
And the autumn moon is bright.''
In his own way, Randall is ``pure in heart.'' He's a senior editor at a New York publishing house that's just been purchased by Raymond Alden (Christopher Plummer), a tycoon who rivals Donald Trump in ostentation and vulgarity. Being one of the last men in the business with ``taste and originality,'' Randall doesn't see much of a future.
His eager protege Stewart Swinton (James Spader) has promised that he'll leave, too, if Randall is fired. And that's what everyone is about to find out. Alden has invited his employees to a dinner party at his mansion where their fates will be announced.
That kind of public humiliation is enough to bring out the animal in anyone.
The rest of ``Wolf'' follows parallel tracks. There are Randall's nightly physical changes, most of them familiar to generations of horror fans. And there are the changes in Randall's personal life. These also involve his wife Charlotte (Kate Nelligan) and Alden's troubled daughter Laura (Michelle Pfeiffer). The daytime and nighttime sides of the story complement each other well, though neither is flawless.
Rick Baker's makeup effects aren't as graphic (or as gruesome) as his work on ``An American Werewolf in London,'' and they don't really need to be. Nicholson's naturally lupine features are always effective. Some of the slow-motion special effects and stuntwork are striking. Some could have come straight from a martial arts flick.
In the ``daytime'' side, Randall's other physical and emotional changes are a wonderful touch. But that elusive screen ``chemistry'' never quite catches fire between Nicholson and Pfeiffer. Perhaps it's just that her character is so self-absorbed and unsympathetic that the action seems slow when she's around. In any case, if Nichols had managed to cut 20 minutes from the film, it might have been a four-star stunner.
As it is, a lot of credit has to go to a fine script by Jim Harrison and Wesley Strick. They know what fans expect from the genre, but at the same time they're not afraid to break or change the rules. The last reel - you don't want to know anything about it beforehand - is a terrific combination of scares, comedy and physical action.
Some fairly graphic violence and a truly adult approach to the material make the film difficult to recommend to younger viewers - but not to horror fans or to Nicholson fans. They'll have a grand time at ``Wolf.''
Wolf ***
A Columbia release playing at Salem Valley 8 and Tanglewood Mall. 122 min. Rated R for graphic violence, strong language, sexual content.
by CNB