by Hayley Charlesworth
As I’m With Geek’s resident Teen Wolf reviewer, as well as being a huge fan of Being Human, Ginger Snaps, An American Werewolf in London and the like, it’s fair to say I dig werewolves. Imagine my delight, then, when I discovered Blood and Chocolate. A werewolf movie filmed on location in some of Bucharest’s most beautiful spots, and starring Hugh Dancy? I was sold! Unfortunately, the result was not greater than the sum of its parts.
As I’m With Geek’s resident Teen Wolf reviewer, as well as being a huge fan of Being Human, Ginger Snaps, An American Werewolf in London and the like, it’s fair to say I dig werewolves. Imagine my delight, then, when I discovered Blood and Chocolate. A werewolf movie filmed on location in some of Bucharest’s most beautiful spots, and starring Hugh Dancy? I was sold! Unfortunately, the result was not greater than the sum of its parts.
Blood and Chocolate, adapted from the novel of the same name by Annette Curtis Klause, is the story of nineteen year old werewolf Vivian (Agnes Bruckner). Born in Romania but raised in America, she returns to Bucharest at the age of nine when hunters kill her entire family, living with her aunt, Astrid. Astrid’s former mate, pack leader Gabriel (Olivier Martinez) has set his sights on making Vivian his new mate, but Vivian has fallen for human graphic designer Aiden (Hugh Dancy). Vivian’s cousin Rafe (Bryan Dick) grows concerned with the relationship, believing Vivian is revealing all of their secrets to Aidan, and plots with Gabriel to have him eliminated.
I feel it’s important to note that Blood and Chocolate certainly has its strengths. It’s a stunning film to look at, perfectly utilising its exquisite locations in every possible way and at every possible opportunity. Performances vary, but again, there are stand-outs. Bryan Dick, one of Britain’s best “hey, it’s that guy!” actors popping up in everything from Blackpool, to Ashes to Ashes to, yes, Being Human, is delicious in his role as Rafe. He is campy and over the top, sure, but he seems to be the only actor having fun amongst a cast clearly taking themselves too seriously. Aiden is underdeveloped as a character, but he is played by Hugh Dancy, so that’s always enjoyable.
I feel it’s important to note that Blood and Chocolate certainly has its strengths. It’s a stunning film to look at, perfectly utilising its exquisite locations in every possible way and at every possible opportunity. Performances vary, but again, there are stand-outs. Bryan Dick, one of Britain’s best “hey, it’s that guy!” actors popping up in everything from Blackpool, to Ashes to Ashes to, yes, Being Human, is delicious in his role as Rafe. He is campy and over the top, sure, but he seems to be the only actor having fun amongst a cast clearly taking themselves too seriously. Aiden is underdeveloped as a character, but he is played by Hugh Dancy, so that’s always enjoyable.
Unfortunately, that’s about where the strengths end. The other actors involved just, quite simply, aren’t interesting. Agnes Bruckner is a competent yet entirely forgettable lead. Olivier Martinez appears to be channelling a Lidl-grade werewolf version of every “sexually alluring foreigner” stereotype (that’s another thing: Vivian is American, Gabriel French, and Rafe English. Some family!) The story, too, leaves a lot to be desired. Having not read the book, there is the possibility that there is something more interesting in the text, but from what is presented on screen, it’s a fairly generic supernatural romance with little to separate it from the pack. Although thankfully, Blood and Chocolate came before Twilight and the worrying stalker implications of human-creature romance.
The soundtrack isn’t great, either. Having not watched the film in a while, the only element that sticks in my head is that one scene uses a song by Hard-Fi. Even disregarding the fact that Hard-Fi were terrible back in the mid-2000s and have not aged well, it is a song that is completely irrelevant to the scene and distracting, probably only used because it was popular at the time. And that is one of the biggest problems with Blood and Chocolate. Rather than making full use of the location to make a beautiful and unique supernatural film, it squanders these gifts to try to make something “popular” and failing miserably. With only an 11% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, Blood and Chocolate just feels like a waste.
The soundtrack isn’t great, either. Having not watched the film in a while, the only element that sticks in my head is that one scene uses a song by Hard-Fi. Even disregarding the fact that Hard-Fi were terrible back in the mid-2000s and have not aged well, it is a song that is completely irrelevant to the scene and distracting, probably only used because it was popular at the time. And that is one of the biggest problems with Blood and Chocolate. Rather than making full use of the location to make a beautiful and unique supernatural film, it squanders these gifts to try to make something “popular” and failing miserably. With only an 11% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, Blood and Chocolate just feels like a waste.
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