Great Britain, circa the turn of the (19th to 20th) century: When her
parents (Jonathan Coy, Eleanor David) go on a cruise, they leave their
young daughter Bonnie (Emily Hudson) behind in their mansion with her
cousin Sophie (Aleks Darowska) and in the care of Mrs Slighcarp (Stephanie
Beacham), a distant relative they have found out about only recently. Once
the parents are away though, Mrs Slighcarp shows her real face, fires all
of the servants but two (Richard O'Brien, Jane Horrocks), sells all of
Bonnie's toys, and acts increasingly mean towards the girls while treating
the mansion and Bonnie's family's possessions as if they were her own. She
even goes so far as to forge Bonnie's father's will, putting herself in as
the sole beneficiary. Heck, she has even made plans to sink Bonnie's
parents cruise-ship ... Eventually, Mrs Slighcarp gets tired of the
girls and thus she sends them to an orphanage where they have to work at
the laundry and are treated like prisoners. But Simon (Lynton Dearden), a
young hermit who lives in the vicinity of Bonnie's home, hasn't given up
on her yet and frees her and Sophie from the place, then tries to bring
them back home, with Mrs Slighcarp on a steam sleigh in hot pursuit. It
all ends in chases, fights and explosions, and at the end, Mrs Slighcarp
is left at the mercy of the wolves which have made the area surrounding
Bonnie's place her hunting grounds. And once she is dead, Bonnie's
parents, who were already thought dead, return as well. Concerning
children's books about girls in turn of the (19th to 20th) century Great
Britain, it doesn't get any better than Joan Aiken - and I mean this
without a hint of irony, her books combine compelling narratives with
fairy tale-violence, macabre details and ghost story elements.
Unfortunately, her mastery of storytelling does not translate to the
screen to well, at least not in the case of The Wolves of Willoughby
Chase - sure, the film is still full of all the elements which make
Aiken's stories great, but director Stuart Orme seems to be much too tired
to exploit them to their full effect. On top of that, he seems to be
unable to create the proper atmosphere to tell his story in, and shows
little interest in making the many suspense scenes of the film really
work. And to make matters worse, neither Emily Hudson nor Aleks Darowska,
the two lead girls, are really actresses enough (yet?) to carry the film. What
is left is by no means a disaster, the script of the film as such is pretty good at least, it's just a wasted chance to create
something truly great.
|