My Family and the Wolf

In the children's imaginative world there are the goodies (Santa Claus, the Tooth Fairy) and the baddies ( the Wolf ,the Bogey Man) .The Wolf wins in Charles Perrault' s "the Little Red riding Hood" ,even though the tale was often sweetened when told to children (the hunter's intervention).

Grandma met the Wolf when she was young (a little red riding hood ), but she was saved by the man who would become her husband (the equivalent of the hunter).But this summer ,he comes to take her back,now that she is about to celebrate her eightieth birthday.

Her grandchilden are not prepared to accept it ; instead of bickering ,they will spend their holidays looking for a way to prevent grandma from being "wolfed" .But the old lady had already told Hugo -it was the first time he had met her ,for his dad is a workaholic,often on his mobile - there was no sense in trying for she made a deal when she was young,and now her time has come.In the show they stage , granny appears in the finale -after some ponderous acts- just to say goodbye to all her family to urge them to carry on:we survive through our children and our life is eternal.

The movie adds computer animation for the imaginary scenes; the last ones ,in which the wolf intervenes with real characters,a la "Mary Poppins" , are the most successful.

By and large, nevertheless, acting and directing are not equal to the subject :with the exception of the deeply moving Carmen Maura , the actors overplay : the male cast ,particularly , tries to hog the stage and they are almost unbearable ;besides ,in the bakery , they got an incredible nerve ,not exactly an useful example for the young audience ;poetry which was present in Jean-Claude Brialy 's "Eglantine" (1971) on a similar subject is nowhere to be found.

That said, even though the results are not always satisfying , it was a good way to deal with a harsh subject :the ineluctable .The younger audience will certainly need explanations from their parents after viewing it.