The Wolfman - Movie Review

By Anne Brodie

Wolfman and Hamlet – separated at birth?  That’s the implication of this gloriously art directed update on the hirsute horror.  Our hero is lonely, tortured, misunderstood, and heartbroken; they are tragic figures that endure in pop culture because they represent our dark side while stirring our tenderest emotions.  There is a common mother issue and their fathers are naughty boys.  Wolfman and Hamlet have women who love them, but whose unacceptable behaviour and knack for sealing their own difficult fate scotches any chance at happiness.

The latest version of Wolfman is the British born Lawrence Talbot (Benicio Del Toro), called back to his family’s gothic pile when his brother’s butchered body is discovered on the moors.  Talbot who grew up in America is a famous American stage actor playing; you guessed it, Hamlet, on a tour of England. 

It’s 1891 and the full moon is hanging over the moors at Talbot Hall.  Lawrence is reunited with his edgy father (Anthony Hopkins) for the first time in years; it’s an uncomfortable meet, bringing back disturbing memories of his mother’s suicide on another moonlit night long ago. 

His late brother’s fiancée (Emily Blunt) asked him to come home to investigate the murder of her intended as the local constabulary seems unable to capture the killer.  Her fiancé’s body was torn limb from limb by a massive clawed predator that dispatched others earlier. 

The villagers are in an uproar and roam about with lit torches seeking out the monster.  It somehow infiltrates the hunting party, attacks with incredible ferocity and leaves them dead.

The local gypsies are frightened; they know what a werewolf is, that it comes out at the full moon, driven to feast on mortals and woodland creatures.  Investigators are the gypsy encampment witness the brutal, lightening fast kills as a creature moves inside. 

What passes for life at Talbot Hall is sinister and creepy.  Stuffed deer’s heads line the hallways while the dank, suffocating darkness seems to hold terrible secrets.  Talbot the elder is strangely uninvolved with the news of a monster on the loose, and spends much of his time in a dungeon locked in by his servant.  Lawrence’ mind is in overdrive trying to understand what’s going on; you can feel his anxiety.

But the story is thin.  You can’t do much with Wolfman; he’s the same as and perhaps less interesting than Dracula or Frankenstein.  That’s a problem the filmmakers can’t surmount but they do a remarkable job given the limitations. 

Anthony Hopkins provides us with a no-holds barred re-imagining of Hannibal Lecter; he’s gleefully evil with full throttle energy that burns up the screen.  His moments are pure theatre. Emily Blunt on the other hand, is cinematic lavender perfume, wafting about in a feminine Victorian world; we get to see her in action, but it’s unimpressive.  Hugo Weaving turns up as a snooty investigator from Scotland Yard, called to the Moors to find the beast. 

Hannibal Lecter

Geraldine Chaplin seems born to the role of gypsy soothsayer Maleva; she has a singular exoticism and weathered beauty and a sense of decorum that adds gravity to the far fetched story.

Geraldine Chaplin

The look of The Wolfman is unparalleled; it takes place in what looks like a series of very beautiful, moody daguerreotypes.  The filmmakers have created a stunning, and slightly repugnant world that is choked with the dust of generations and the glow of a threatening moon. 

The Wolfman marks the return to the atmospheric horror films of the past, set in the far past, just far enough away to be comfortable.  I hope there’s more.

35mm thriller

Written by Andrew Kevin Walker, David Self, based on the 1941 screenplay by Curt Siodmak

Directed by Joe Johnston

Runtime: 100 minutes

MPAA: Rated R for bloody horror violence and gore

Country: UK / USA

Language: English

M&C

Advisor to 10 investigated

A man offering legal counsel to missionaries charged with child kidnapping in Haiti is being looked at as a potential participant in a Salvadoran child prostitution ring

BY GERARDO REYES AND PATRICIA MAZZEI

GREYES@ELNUEVOHERALD.COM

Salvadoran police say photos that surfaced Friday show the legal advisor to American missionaries jailed in Haiti may be the lead suspect in a human trafficking ring involving child prostitution in El Salvador.

Police say they are waiting for fingerprints to determine if Jorge Anibal Torres Puello is also wanted in El Salvador on charges of promoting prostitution among children in what has been one of the nation's most vexing social problems.

``There are similarities -- the date of birth, and also similarities in the physical appearance,'' said Howard Cotto, deputy director of investigations for Salvadoran police, during a press conference in San Salvador.

The controversy surrounding the 33-year-old legal advisor -- a key figure in the drama surrounding 10 Americans accused of trying to take 33 children out of Haiti -- exploded yesterday when Salvadoran police announced they were trying to determine if the legal advisor was the notorious child trafficker.

Police said the probe began when they were asked by Dominican officials to search for connections, but did not elaborate.

SIMILAR LOOK

During a press conference, Cotto said that mug shots of Jorge Torres Orellana -- wanted for promoting prostitution and posting explicit photos of children on the Internet -- shared a remarkable likeness to a photo of Torres Puello.

In an interview with The New York Times, Torres Puello denied any connection to the Salvadoran fugitive, saying ``I don't have anything to do with El Salvador''.

For the past two weeks, the U.S. church group has come under scrutiny for skirting the laws of Haiti to remove the children in the aftermath of the devastating earthquake that tore through the capital on Jan. 12.

In the wake of their arrest, members of the Central Valley Baptist Church have said their leader, Laura Silsby, mislead them about the legitimacy of their mission in Haiti.

But with the recent announcement by Salvadoran police, attention has turned to Torres Puello, who has been representing himself as a legal counsel to the group.

Though he claims to have a law license, the Santo Domingo address listed on Puello Consulting's website turned out to be the office of Alejandro Puello, Torres Puello's cousin.

Alejandro Puello showed a Miami Herald reporter on Friday around the bare, one-room office in a working-class neighborhood and said Torres Puello has never worked with him, and that his cousin is not a lawyer.

``Jorge Puello has nothing to do with this office,'' he said.

Alejandro Puello, 27, said he was unaware of any ties that his cousin may have with human trafficking in El Salvador.

He said he thought his cousin was born in New York and lived in Canada until recently.

Alejandro Puello -- who said he is licensed to practice law in the Dominican Republic -- said he challenged his cousin when he learned Torres Puello was lending legal advice to the American church group.

``I said, `Jorge, how, if you're not a lawyer?' '' he said. ``He told me, `I hired a lawyer for them in Haiti'''.

During the press conference Friday in El Salvador, police said they will seek Torres Puello's extradition if evidence shows he is indeed the fugitive and accused child trafficker Torres Orellana.

ORELLANA'S CHARGES

Charges were filed last year against Torres Orellana after three young girls escaped captivity and led police to the house where they had previously been held.

Also charged was Ana Josefa Galvarina Ramirez Orellana. Though it is not clear how Torres Orellana escaped, Ramirez was convicted of trafficking humans between El Salvador, the Dominican Republic and Nicaragua.

The Miami Herald

Valentine's Day Inspiration: Top 10 Worst Romance Novel Quotes

By Natalie O'Neill

Once upon a time there was a romantically bankrupt city called Miami, where chivalry meant holding the door for your hooker, and true love was something you felt for your Mini-Hummer. Once a year, the citizens of this strange land would do their best to seem normal. They would buy each other roses and trinkets made of gold, and then write little notes inside cards shaped like hearts. That occasion was called Valentine's Day.

On that day, many of the natives were confused. There were candles to be lit and nice things to be whispered. So an extremely helpful blogger compiled a list of deep romantic thoughts for the Magic City. Drunk off of love (read: whiskey, straight), she messed up! The unfortunate result: A compilation of really bad romance novel quotes. Here they are, via edmplanet.com:

1. His body was hard -- not hard like Milosevic, the Serbian strongman, but hard like the marble on your shower floor, when you fall and bang your knee.

2. Her embrace made his manhood swell like week-old roadkill on hot asphalt in the Georgia sun.

3. Her breasts heaved like a stormy ocean, and her pointed nipples were like hypodermics washed up on the shore. 

4.Her petticoats dropped to the ground, rustling like a cockroach in a sugar bowl.

5. He tore open her blouse like a Publisher's Clearing House letter in which he, and some guy named Steven Bouber from Stockton, California, were potential finalists for the $10 million prize.

6. With each breath, her chest heaved like a bulimic after Thanksgiving dinner.

7.Then he kissed her, like a butterfly kisses the windshield of a Porsche on the Autobahn.

8. His manhood stood at full attention, stiff and stony like the vice president.

9. Beatrice was on him like a piranha on a corn dog.

10. His chest was her pillow, and oh, did she drool.

Miami New Times

BBC has 382 staff earning more than £100,000

The BBC paid hundreds of its staff more than £100,000 last year despite its leaders' claims that the corporation is run efficiently

By Jonathan Wynne-Jones, Media Correspondent

There were 382 executives who received six-figure salaries, with as many as 58 earning more than the Prime Minister's £194,250-a-year wage.

A "100k list" obtained by The Sunday Telegraph shows that the total cost of the high earners' salaries was the equivalent of the television licence fees paid by 400,000 households.

However, the BBC has refused to disclose the names of the majority of those on the list or say what they do to justify their salaries.

Gordon Brown has called on all publicly-funded bodies, including the BBC, to name staff who are paid more than £150,000.

Last night, senior Conservatives criticised the corporation's failure to be more transparent and expressed concern over its level of accountability.

Their comments follow a turbulent week for the BBC, in which it was attacked for the amount of money spent on 'talent' and expenses and Mark Thompson, the director general, was questioned by the House of Commons spending watchdog over the secrecy surrounding individual stars' pay.

While the names and salaries of the BBC's 107 most senior executives were published in November, the 100k list, released under the Freedom of Information (FOI) Act, shows the full extent of its payments to high-ranking staff.

For each high earner, the list states which BBC division he or she works in, gives a broad job description such as "producer" or "commissioner", and provides a salary band. Names, job titles and precise salaries have been withheld.

In 2009, out of the 384 employees on the list, just under half were paid between £100,000 and £130,000; nearly a quarter received between £130,000 and £159,999, and nearly a third were on more than £160,000.

The highest earners were Mark Thompson, the director general on £664,000, and Mark Byford, the deputy director general on £471,000.

Of the BBC's different divisions, BBC Vision, which is responsible for television content, has the largest number of highly-paid staff, taking up around a third of the places on the 100k list.

Only around one in 10 of those on the list work in the BBC Journalism group, which oversees news and sport.

Producers in BBC Vision, which was created in 2006, were paid up to £190,000 last year. So were executives in the BBC Marketing division.

The salaries dwarf those of MPs, whose earn a basic £65,000 a year, and nurses, whose average salary is £26,500.

The figures are likely to anger licence fee payers as well as many of the BBC's 20,000 staff, the large majority of whom are on much lower wages.

Mr Thompson has acted to quell public disquiet at the large salaries by proposing that the pay of the top 20 executives to be frozen for the next three years.

This suggestion has been backed by the BBC Trust, the governing body, which has also agreed to place a pay freeze on the next 630 senior managers for one year.

These moves are part of an attempt to reduce the corporation's £79 million annual bill for senior managers' salaries by a quarter over the next three years.

Although staff bonuses were suspended in January 2009, another document released in response to an FOI request shows that £1.5 million was nevertheless paid out in bonuses staff last year.

This is significantly lower than the £15.7 million total handed out in bonuses in 2008.

The documents released to this newspaper exclude its 'talent', which refers to presenters and contributors, as well as staff at BBC Worldwide, the corporation's commerical arm.

The BBC bowed to pressure last week and disclosed that it spends £229 million a year on 'talent', including £70 million a year on its top stars.

However, it refused to reveal exactly how much was paid to the highest earners, such as Fiona Bruce and Graham Norton.

The corporation is under mounting pressure from MPs over its lack of transparency.

Ed Vaizey, the shadow arts minister, called its stance unacceptable and urged it to publish the salaries.

"The licence fee payers have a right to know," he said.

"We are living in an era of transparency and the BBC has to take part in that rather than stand behind the curtain. It shouldn't try to fob people off with superficial information".

Richard Bacon, a member of the Public Accounts Committee which questioned Mr Thompson last week over the salaries of the BBC's top presenters, claimed that the National Audit Office should have complete freedom in analysing the corporation's accounts.

At present, the Audit Office must wait to be invited by the BBC Trust before assessing how money is being spent.

"We don't have anything like enough freedom to scrutinise what the BBC is doing with our money," he said.

"This will make people fearful that there are people who are unaccountable. It is common sense that people who are paid a great deal of money from public funds should reveal what they are paid".

Defending the level of pay, a BBC spokesman said: "The BBC is extremely conscious about the public's feeling about top salaries in the current climate and that the salaries we pay are met by the public, but we have to balance that with the need to attract the best professional talent in order to produce the high quality programmes and services licence fee payers expect".

On the decision to name only the top 107 employees, the spokesman said: "The BBC has gone further than any other publicly-funded organisation in proactively publishing the pay and expenses of its senior leaders.

"However we must balance our commitment to openness with the privacy of the individual – a balance we believe we have met by publishing the exact salaries of the 107 leaders with the greatest salary, responsibility or influence."

The spokesman added that the bonuses which had been paid last year had been contractually agreed prior to the introduction of the freeze.

The list released under the Freedom of Information Act and published online by The Sunday Telegraph gives limited details of the 300 highest-earning executives. The BBC told this newspaper that a further 82 executives, in undisclosed roles and divisions, also earn more than £100,000, taking the total number on six-figure salaries to 382.

Daily Telegraph