MAJOR SPOILERS ahead, so beware... There are some truly wonderful ideas in this film. It's got excellent performances by everyone. Stunning, colorful and very moody cinematography. There are also songs. It's not really a musical, but somehow structured like one. It has things in common with Rosemary's Baby, Alien, and I think it's a variation on Ginger Snaps, which was about a female coming of age story welded into a werewolf yarn. In Good Manners (SPOILER), it's a coming of age story about a woman learning the ins and outs of how to raise a child werewolf and teaching him good manners. Like Rosemary in Polanski's film, the mothering instinct is strong in the lead character, Clara. It's what motivates the plot.
The visual fx range from practical to CG. They are passable, but clearly look like what they are. Even so, they work within the story. Where the film falls down, in my opinion is in structure. It's clearly divided into two parts.
START SPOILERS... The first part is about Clara taking a job as a nanny for pregnant Ana. They become romantically involved and Clara soon finds Ana has odd behaviors, walking in her sleep, for example, and eating cats. As the baby comes to term, Ana keeps having severe pains (ala Rosemary), until finally, the werewolf offspring bursts through her stomach (like Alien), killing Ana. Clara unwraps the umbilical cord, saving it's life, but cannot bring herself to abandon the creature by the river. End of the first part.
Seven years pass and the child is a boy, Joel, raised by Clara. During full moons, she locks him in a small room, chained to the wall. The director has said the visual look of this film was inspired by Disney's Sleeping Beauty. I don't see it, but the chained to the wall idea seems to come from the Disney witch Maleficent visiting the Prince Philip chained to the wall of his cell. I won't spoil the rest of the film, only to say, the story goes on much longer, with Joel learning of his origin and rebelling against Clara. There is a touching, if abrupt ending. ...END SPOILERS
The second half felt very slow. In fact the whole film was paced too slowly, but structurally, we didn't really need part one. That part of the story could have been told in flashbacks, memories, verbal and visual. That way the story would have started in high gear and gotten fleshed out as we progressed and learned how this all came about. That would have been more dramatic I think, and could have cut the film down by 30 min.
Nevertheless, this is yet another interesting take on the werewolf mythology and may not be for everyone, but if you liked Ginger Snaps and Rosemary's Baby, this is well worth checking out if it roars into your neighborhood.
The visual fx range from practical to CG. They are passable, but clearly look like what they are. Even so, they work within the story. Where the film falls down, in my opinion is in structure. It's clearly divided into two parts.
START SPOILERS... The first part is about Clara taking a job as a nanny for pregnant Ana. They become romantically involved and Clara soon finds Ana has odd behaviors, walking in her sleep, for example, and eating cats. As the baby comes to term, Ana keeps having severe pains (ala Rosemary), until finally, the werewolf offspring bursts through her stomach (like Alien), killing Ana. Clara unwraps the umbilical cord, saving it's life, but cannot bring herself to abandon the creature by the river. End of the first part.
Seven years pass and the child is a boy, Joel, raised by Clara. During full moons, she locks him in a small room, chained to the wall. The director has said the visual look of this film was inspired by Disney's Sleeping Beauty. I don't see it, but the chained to the wall idea seems to come from the Disney witch Maleficent visiting the Prince Philip chained to the wall of his cell. I won't spoil the rest of the film, only to say, the story goes on much longer, with Joel learning of his origin and rebelling against Clara. There is a touching, if abrupt ending. ...END SPOILERS
The second half felt very slow. In fact the whole film was paced too slowly, but structurally, we didn't really need part one. That part of the story could have been told in flashbacks, memories, verbal and visual. That way the story would have started in high gear and gotten fleshed out as we progressed and learned how this all came about. That would have been more dramatic I think, and could have cut the film down by 30 min.
Nevertheless, this is yet another interesting take on the werewolf mythology and may not be for everyone, but if you liked Ginger Snaps and Rosemary's Baby, this is well worth checking out if it roars into your neighborhood.