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")

"He was a killer, a thing that preyed, living on the things that lived, unaided, alone, by virtue of his own strength and prowess, surviving triumphantly in a hostile environment where only the strong survive."

That, of course, is a description of a wild dog from the menagerie of San Francisco's great storyteller Jack London. But it can also be a successful book editor in today's wolf-eat-wolf world of big- time book publishing.

In Mike Nichols' enchanted 1994 movie, Wolf, we meet a failing book editor, Jack Nicholson, who, sorry to say, would rather purr than bark. Because he's a goat staked out for the kill, meek and mild Jack is about to succumb to the claw and fang of the monsters around him -- not the gibbering ogres that hide behind bookshelves in editorial offices, and come out at night to hide author contracts, mix-up manuscripts and insert misspellings and inaccuracies in freshly proof-read books – but assassins who can kill a career with an e-mail or fax.

In his case, Nicholson has two creatures to deal with: the jackal- like James Spader, as vicious and as smiling a villain as one might find in a Grimm's fairy tale or an MBA executive program, and the nightmarish Christopher Plummer, the nastiest and most treacherous boss since Genghis Khan, the sort of corpse-eating, bone-crunching sneak who gives hyenas a bad name. Both actors are at the top of their game, and it's a delight to watch them work their nastiness.

Fortunately for the Nicholson character, he gets bitten by a werewolf, and we all know what that means, kiddies.

Like one of Jack London's canines on the prowl: "He became quicker of movement... swifter of foot, craftier, deadlier, more lithe, more lean with iron like muscle and sinew, more enduring, more cruel more ferocious, and more intelligent."

All this without having to spend a minute on a tread mill or give up steak ("I said bloody rare!") . Sometimes there is justice in this world.

As if this wasn't enough of a bonus for getting nibbled by a werewolf, he falls in love with a dirty-minded Little Red Riding Hood, the toothsome Michelle Pfeiffer. And his ill-wishers soon find out they've bitten off more than they can chew.

Ingenious Mike Nichols has trapped the old werewolf legends – as told in the Universal Pictures Lon Chaney movies – and given them a new, giggle-filled twist.

But if you have a feeling that we're not in tranquil Transylvania any more, you're right. This is New York City, where the pointy skyscrapers look like fangs against the midnight sky, and a chill wind at the stroke of 12 can suddenly come howling down Broadway. Even so, a newly minted werewolf in Gotham has appointments to keep and rivals to slay. And to do the job properly, he's now armed with useful new office skills, like the ability to hear whispered workplace gossip blocks away and a sensitive nose that tells him who's been sipping tequila at the breakfast table.

However, he can't be a 9-to-fiver forever. A wolf-man needs to make time for fun, like one of Jack London's animal heroes: "But especially he loved to run in the dim twilight of the summer midnights, listening to the subdued and sleepy murmurs of the forest, reading signs and sounds as a man may read a book, and seeking for the mysterious something that called -- called, waking or sleeping, at all times, for him to come."

As you might expect, evening is chow-down time in the Big Apple. But what happens in Central Park stays in Central Park, minus a hand or two.

Blending chills, kills and giggles, Mike Nichols has created a marvelous tale for our time. And with the wondrous Jack Nicholson, who can be both blithe and bloodcurdling at the same instant, he has a creature any monster-maker would be proud of. Glorious special effects, great ensemble acting, and laugh-out-loud wit – the sort of insightful and caustic comments that over the years Mike Nichols rewarded us with, like so many jalapeño-flavored candy bars -- make Wolf an engaging fable for grownups ... but one that you might not want to view just before bed-time; especially if you sleep with an open window with the moon shining down.

(A tip of the old Davy Crockett coonskin cap to perennial best- seller Jack London, an acute observer of wild animals and wild writers, whose century-old canine heroes would do very well in modern Manhattan ... if it ever came down to the crunch.)

A cool new take on a werewolf story. Will Randall(Jack Nicholson)is your every day nice guy, who does'nt seem throw many punches, his best friend and coworker Stuart Swinton(James Spader) steals his job Has Senior Publisher, and his wife Charlotte(Kate Nelligan) is cheating on him. But something interesting happens to him. While driving home after a business trip, he accidently hits a wolf, and when he gets out of his car and tries to touch it, the wolf bites on the hand. Suddenly Wills senses start working in overdrive, He starts seeing farther then normal,and hearing farther also. And he starts able to smell things other people can't. He starts feeling great enough to fight back, And he will now start throwing punches. But happens when Will's Wolf instincts start taking over? One of the best werewolf movies in a long time. Jack Nicholson was great, really to perfect for this role. A different take on the werewolf story. Its a howling classic.

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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