I am a big fan of the original Wicker Man. I found it darkly delightful and wholly original. LaBute has adapted that gem of a screenplay into this appalling train wreck. In order to manage this, he had to make every conceivably wrong decision during the adaptation. It is as if he carefully analyzed the original to identify the elements that made it work so well, and then dislodged every single one of them.
The policeman is no longer devoutly religious, smugly "just the facts" and virginal. Instead he is so traumatized by an incident in his past that he sees visions every fifteen minutes. The island and its people are no longer sunny and joyful in their oddity. Instead they all act as if they had just stepped off the cover of a Black Sabbath album. The islanders are no longer focused on fertility and abundance (despite their language);Their culture is now all about matriarchal rule, an element that serves the story in no way whatsoever. Finally, and most inexplicably, the film is PG-13, robbing it of the ability to portray in any effective way key aspects of the islanders' beliefs that in the original went a long way toward unhinging the policeman.
That LaBute has so completely destroyed a great story is something of an improbable accomplishment. While I concur with the many other reviewers that just about every aspect of this film sucks, the majority of the credit must be reserved for Neil LaBute. Burdened by this screenplay, the rest of the cast and crew did not stand a chance.
The policeman is no longer devoutly religious, smugly "just the facts" and virginal. Instead he is so traumatized by an incident in his past that he sees visions every fifteen minutes. The island and its people are no longer sunny and joyful in their oddity. Instead they all act as if they had just stepped off the cover of a Black Sabbath album. The islanders are no longer focused on fertility and abundance (despite their language);Their culture is now all about matriarchal rule, an element that serves the story in no way whatsoever. Finally, and most inexplicably, the film is PG-13, robbing it of the ability to portray in any effective way key aspects of the islanders' beliefs that in the original went a long way toward unhinging the policeman.
That LaBute has so completely destroyed a great story is something of an improbable accomplishment. While I concur with the many other reviewers that just about every aspect of this film sucks, the majority of the credit must be reserved for Neil LaBute. Burdened by this screenplay, the rest of the cast and crew did not stand a chance.
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