Blood and Chocolate (2007) starring Agnes Bruckner, Hugh Dancy, Olivier Martinez, Katja Riemann, Bryan Dick directed by Katja von Garnier Movie Review

Blood and Chocolate (2007)   2/52/52/52/52/5


Agnes Bruckner in Blood and Chocolate (2007)

Romeo & Wolf Girl

The warning signs are there; a 12 certificate movie about werewolves which isn't a comedy is not going to be horror and neither is it going to be sexy despite being a teen romance. Having said that at least "Blood and Chocolate" is not as melodramatic as "Twilight" or maybe that would have been a good thing as in the end it is incredibly uninteresting. The trouble partly stems from it using that old familiar idea of romance between two groups with that this time being werewolves and humans but also because it is monotonous with very little which excites about it.

10 years after her family were murdered in their remote him in the Rocky Mountains, Vivian (Agnes Bruckner - Murder by Numbers) has been raised by her Aunt Astrid (Katja Riemann) in Bucharest where they are part of a small clan of werewolves. But for Vivian life is complicated as she has reached an age where she is expected to become their leader Gabriel's (Olivier Martinez - S.W.A.T.) next wife. Except Vivian has no plans to marry him and then after 7 years be replaced by a younger wife especially having met Aidan (Hugh Dancy - Basic Instinct 2) an American graphic novelist she has fallen in love with a human.

Hugh Dancy in Blood and Chocolate (2007)

Evidently "Blood and Chocolate" is an adaptation of an Annette Curtis Klause novel which as you can guess I haven't read. But I would hope the novel is a hell of a lot more interesting and entertaining than what is served up in this tame movie which I am not entirely sure will appeal to anyone even the teen crowd it is intended. Now part of that maybe because for some reason "Blood and Chocolate" only has a 12 certificate and that means it is tame on all fronts with no real horror and no steamy romance either. It needs to have an edge of danger and eroticism about it to make it work to make it at least visually interesting.

But the decision to keep it safe is not the only issue because we are in Romeo & Juliet territory with a romance between a human and a werewolf which makes it quite obvious. It is part of the reason why it needed a dangerous edge to help lift it and make it an exciting story. But it also needed character development and what we get is served up some characters early on and they pretty much stay as they are from start to finish. Maybe for a younger audience this won't be an issue but it left me wondering what "Blood and Chocolate" could have been like if someone had taken some time to fully flesh out the screenplay.

Aside from that well the acting throughout whilst not completely awful is less than enthralling. It is a case that Agnes Bruckner as Vivian is easy on the eye whilst Hugh Dancy is pleasant but weak as Aidan. And as for Olivier Martinez as Gabriel he is so over the top it is ridiculous.

What this all boils down to is that "Blood and Chocolate" is a dull movie which has this monotonous quality which makes it incredibly hard to get into. And the one thing I haven't mentioned is that for those hoping for some decent CGI as people transform into werewolves are going to be disappointed as there isn't any, one minute human, next screen blurred and then we have a wolf.


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