Blood and Chocolate - Review

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Rated: PG-13

Distributor: MGM

Release Date: 2007-01-26

Starring: Agnes Bruckner, Hugh Dancy, Olivier Martinez, Katja Riemann, Bryan Dick, Chris Geere

Directed by Kaja von Garnier

Produced by Daniel Bobker, Wolfgang Esenwein, Hawk Koch, Gary Lucchesi, Tom Rosenberg, Richard S. Wright

Written by Ehren Kruger, Christopher Landon

Visit the movie's Official Site!

Reviewed by Josh Tyler : 2007-01-26 03:16:42

Blood and Chocolate’s name doesn’t mean anything. There’s a throwaway line in the film which tries to tie it in, but the name Blood and Chocolate is exactly what it appears to be: A really bad title. The movie isn’t about blood or chocolate, it’s about a young female werewolf named Vivian (Agnes Bruckner) bucking against the traditions of her werewolf clan and rebelling by crushing on a human male. When human teenagers rebel, the result is usually underage binge drinking. When werewolves rail against their elders, the result is bloodshed. They are wolves after all.

What makes the thing interesting to me is that the clan leaders Agnes is fighting against aren’t bad guys. The head of the wolf pack is a werewolf named Gabriel, who does what he does to keep his people safe. He’s a mostly moral character, and by putting him at odds with Vivian Blood and Chocolate creates a kind of complexity that’s usually absent in the standard werewolf/vampire/insert-creature-here romance movie. I mean in Underworld it’s pretty clear whose side you should be on. That’s not the case here. Vivian is kind of a snot, and her willful disobedience causes a lot of trouble and misery for her mostly guiltless werewolf clan. Those who aren’t guiltless get theirs early on in the film, leaving a secret society that’s just trying to survive and mind their own damn business.

I liked some of the look of the film too. I’m a total sucker for old world European architecture, and by setting itself in Romania Blood and Chocolate has plenty of that. The werewolves hang out in old buildings and churches, skulking around in shadows. Because they didn’t have much of a budget, there’s not much of a temptation to amp everything up with CGI. The movie isn’t flashy, but it does look fairly real. The flipside of this is that the actual werewolf stuff is pretty pedestrian. The transformation effects used are basically just a bunch of light and smoke, and in their wolf form the were-people turn into normal, scraggily looking wolves. The action isn't much better. Some of it is downright ponderous. If you’re expecting a horror movie or a high-octane action movie, forget it. This just isn’t that kind of film.

The movie has more in common with Romeo and Juliet than it does with those old Universal monster movies. The only problem there is that the romance between Vivian and her human friend Aiden just isn’t that believable. There’s no reason to buy into her caring about him. He just shows up one day. She barely knows him. What’s the deal? Aiden at least shows some sense when he figures out her secret. He freaks out and tries to get the hell out of there. I liked that, about time one of these movies had someone with some sense in it. But sadly that’s quickly washed away since, without a romance there is no movie.

Blood and Chocolate is better than it has any right to be. The werewolf thing has really been done to death, and even mixing a love story into it doesn’t add anything new to the genre. Director Katja von Garnier’s film isn’t particularly fresh, but it is fairly well executed. Maybe some of it is cliché and sometimes it seems like it ought to be about vampires instead of werewolves, but the script by Ehren Kruger and Christophe Landon is at least free from the half-baked excesses of sniveling, unrealistic, CGI villains pitted against all too perfect heroes. There’s enough moral ambiguity in this human/werewolf romance to give it the depth necessary to keep the film from falling completely flat.

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Duncan Says:
January 30th, 2007 at 19:34
You and I have watched two different movies. Mine version is almost one of the worst, most cliched ridden, overwrought pieces of rubbish ever yawned through
The acting id atrocious,The dialogue laughable .Agnes has the chemistry of a pancake.Olivier Martinez is incomprehensible and resembles a mafia hood, the entire shambles is just dreadful. The effects of shape shifting are so 1950 remided me of Saturday mornings at the local " flick house" with Zorro and Batman et al.
I cannot believe you gav this garbage 3 stars .!!! Not even Romania can save its sorry hide.

Trista Says:
May 23rd, 2007 at 14:53
I haven't seen the movie yet. But from what I hear from those who have seen it then I am going to be dissapointed when I see it. I have read the book and absolutely adore the book by Annette Curtis Klaus. Blood and Chocolate is my favorite. Her book silver kiss was pretty good too, but I like werewolves so I chose this book. From what I've heard the movie is nothing like the book. The movie says she works in a chocolate shop in Romania, when the book says she doesn't work and they live in the United states I forget if its Maine or Maryland. Anyway, the book is about a just turning 16 Vivian, who sees her pack dwindling and realizes that because the Five have matured they just see her as a mate and not a friend. aiden comes in because vivan just wants a friend. Someone to talk and to love. Gabriel is nothing like the dude in the movie. Gabriel is a big stereotypical biker dude. In other words he's huge. Not scrawny. Aiden is skinny and kind of a hippie and drives a bug. Vivian's dad at the beginning died trying to save the clan from people who decided to attack their inn in the mountains. Because a pack male about vivians age decided to terrorise the town. well after he died their wasn't anyone to lead them. The pack decided to do a ritual fight. Were the winner would become the leader. No one was able to stand up to Gabriel because he was too strong and large. and the only one who did was a stranger who almost matched him in size. Gabriel won of course. vivians mom got jumped by Astrid the villian in the story as Vivivan frantically watched everyone as they let her sufaccate her mother. Vivian attacked astrid and one the Bitches dance, which she had no intention of participating in, but ended up in it anyway. She became Gabriels mate and ran. told him to crown a queen he must catch the queen. She tried to set herself on fire after many mysterious deaths happened throughout the town. Gabriel found her. Aiden had come to kill her. Astrid came to kill them both. And take Gabriel for herself. Vivian got astrid to say her plan and Gabriel took out the law and killed her. Vivian was hlf changed and Aiden shot at Gabriel and Vivian jumped in to stop him but got shot. The elder wolf came to her aide and told her she had to change back into one form or the other and found that she could not. A couple weeks later, she was up in her room still the same way and talking to the Four(Rafe got shot too.) When they left she started to calm, but heard a sound at the window when she turned she found it was gabriel and ran to close the window she didn't want him to her stuck half way. He came in and talked to her about his encounter with falling in love with a human and he tried to show her who he really was she called him a monster and he killed her. He said it was only natural that one such as they want to be loved in both forms. Anyway, he ended up kissing her on the bed and then bit her quite hard on the neck she loved it and changed back into a human. She had understood the difference between Gabriel's and Aiden's kisses. But aiden was human and would never be able to be with her his kisses were like CHOCOLATE, something to ease the pain and hurt from loosing her father for a while. Gabriels kisses were like BLOOD because he could appreciate both forms of her and it echoed who she was. Hence the name of the book "BLOOD AND CHOCOLATE" I'm done preaching about movies that don't add up to books. That drives me crazy.

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