Blood and Chocolate (2007)

Powerful

Best movie of this year hands down!

if their story seems completely bonkers, almost like a feverish work of fiction, you ain't heard nothing yet.

The biggest problem with this movie is it’s a little better than you think it might be, which somehow makes it worse. As in, it takes itself a bit too seriously, which makes most of the movie feel kind of dull.

I heard the title of this film a number of times since its release, all I knew about it was that it had werewolves, and I knew it had low reviews by critics, but I still wanted to give it a go. Basically in Bucharest, Romania lives Vivian (Agnes Bruckner), an orphaned nineteen-year-old werewolf, she was raised by her aunt Astrid (Katja Riemann) after her parents and two siblings were killed by hunters in the Rocky Mountains, Colorado. Her family belongs to a bloodline of werewolves and Vivian is promised to Gabriel (Olivier Martinez), the leader of the pack, trying to a live like any regular human she works in a chocolate shop. American cartoonist Aiden (Hugh Dancy), who creates artworks and comic books but never signs his name, is researching the "mythology" of werewolves for his publisher for the next edition of his magazine, he meets Vivian and they form a close bond. They fall in love with each other, however Gabriel's evil son, and Vivian's cousin Rafe (Bryan Dick), is keeping a close eye on her and poisoning Gabriel about her loving relationship with Aiden. Vivian is being forced to choose between continuing centuries of family tradition and giving up true happiness or continuing her passion with Aiden and angering her fellow lycanthropes. Also starring Chris Geere as Ulf, Tom Harper as Gregor, John Kerr as Finn, Jack Wilson as Willem and Vitalie Ursu as Constani. The title is based on a thought phrase, a predicament for a werewolf, "which tastes sweeter, blood or chocolate". Bruckner gives a reasonably performance as the adolescent werewolf stuck between the dark world she inhabits and life as a human, Dancy is also reasonable as the human she falls for, and Martinez and Dick are alright being nasty, I will admit I did get into the story a little bit, the werewolf-human love story most of all, and some alright special effects, you could compare it to Twilight I suppose (but no vampires), overall it is a pretty average romantic fantasy horror. Okay!

I have read the book and unfortunately am not very impressed with this film. There were a lot of changes made that were uncalled for. The acting was good and the overall look of the wolves was also pretty cool but the film should of had a different title since the plot, characters and other things were changed or switched altogether. It would be like naming Eragon, Dragon Heart. Meaning it doesn't make sense with the book. It's an entirely different matter; some things were similar but the differences were a lot bigger/major. I did like the movie, I have to agree with that. It won't however, be listed as one of my favorites. I have seen more approving and enjoyable films than this. In the end if you have never read the book than go ahead and watch the movie, otherwise for those who love the book stay away from this movie.

Way to make wolves seem terrifying and potentially murderous, y'all.This movie is interesting, in its own way--if by interesting you mean 'tremendously bloody and unnecessarily perverted.'The main character, Vivian, is a sulky, broody, somewhat rebellious twenty-something whose guilt over her parents' death hangs like a cloud.She falls for Aiden, a decent, good-ole-boy running from an assault charge in the states and perhaps his own dorkiness--he writes comics.Anybody who calls themselves a "graphic artist" in defense against accusations of being a comic-book writer is well aware he is a dork.Meanwhile Gabriel, Vivian's other potential love interest, is a jerk.He's not just a jerk in the teenager, he-never-called-me-back style.Rather, he is a cold-blooded killer who has instituted a habit of killing a human being at random judged unworthy of life by himself.This is his idea of pack bonding.In this version of the story 'Blood and Chocolate', Gabriel is also Vivian's uncle, which just adds a terrifyingly 'ick' factor to it all.As if mercilessly hunting down humans in the forest wasn't 'ick' enuf.This story is kind of entertainingly interesting in its own way. The 'girl/boy breaks away from old community by breaking its rules, falls in love with the wrong guy/girl, and thus learns to forge their own way in life' is an oldie but a goodie. The werewolf thing's a twist.The problem is that this movie has nothing to do with the original novel except the names. In that far BETTER story, Viviane's mother had escaped the fire with her, and no member of the pack blamed her for her father's death. She lived in the U.S., not Romania. She went to school with Aiden, and she met him there. The entire pack had lived with child!Vivian and her parents before the fire, and they lived together still.They were not the only werewolf pack in the world, which made more sense as Werewolf legends seem to exist everywhere these days.Vivian was seventeen, and her mother was pushing her to commit to Gabriel because he was the new leader of the pack; there was no talk of some "mysterious" prophecy, which is an always groan-worthy insertion.The book is more a story of coming to terms with one's relationship with one's community, and accepting every sacrifice that must be made to maintain the natural order within that relationship...The film is more a story of accepting oneself at the cost of one's family.Gabriel in the novel is a cigar-smoking, motorcycle-riding, consonant-dropping hunk, five years older than Vivian at most but totally hot.Vivian is meant to feel somewhat afraid of his sexual prowess and his total ease with himself and his rebellious, leather-clad attitude.She is also meant to feel drawn to Aiden's more laid-back self. She also chooses to reveal what she is to him, and he freaks out.The important difference between book and movie--the most important one, anyway--is that in the book, killing humans is against pack code.While the book is a live-and-let-live treatise, the movie is a for-god-sakes-fear-the-outsider, chances-are-s/he-does-want-you-dead masterpiece. It is a masterpiece of FEAR-MONGERING, but oh well.Can't have everything I guess, but was a smart script too much to want?In fact, Rafe and Astrid, who is not his mother but rather his consort, wind up dead at Gabriel's hands because they murder a girl.They also set Vivian up for the murder...anyway, the plot is tight.The plot is also twisty, at times difficult to follow and a mystery on top of everything else. The book is in fact incredibly intelligent.I wish the same could be said for the movie.

Blood and Chocolate is set in Bucharest in Romania where nineteen year old Werewolf Vivian (Agnes Bruckner) lives with her aunt Astrid (Katja Riemann) who is also a Werewolf after fleeing Colorado in America ten years previously. A whole society of Werewolves live in Bucharest, the leader Gabriel (Oliver Martinez) has devised laws by which the Werewolf society must abide by, one such rule is that Gabriel must remarry every seven years & Vivian is next in line. However while out in Buchrest an American comic book artist named Aiden (Hugh Dancy) falls for her & ask's her out, Vivian eventually accepts & the two quickly fall in love. Gabriel gets wind of the relationship & orders his son Rafe (Bryan Dick) to scare Aiden off but in a fight Aiden kills Rafe with a silver amulet. Out for revenge Gabriel wants both Aiden & Vivian dead, working together to save their own lives Aiden & Vivian must try to find a way out of the city...This American, British, German & Romanian co-production was directed by Katja von Garnier & was based on the novel of the same name by Annette Curtis Klause which I have not read so I cannot directly compare the two but by all accounts the book is significantly different, to me this soft teen romantic drama fantasy was trying to be the new Twilight saga but with Werewolves instead of Vampires & it's just an all round weak effort. The script for Blood and Chocolate is flawed, for a start at almost an hour & forty minutes long it feels like it goes on forever & is just plain boring. The whole concept about a secret society of Werewolves living in Bucharest is alright but they are given no background whatsoever, how they escaped from Colorado to Bucharest, the laws that they live under are never gone into in any great detail & they are all very vague, the prophecy that says Gabriel has to marry every seven years is never given any reasoning & there's absolutely no purpose to it that I could see, the script doesn't quite know what it wants to be as it goes from supernatural fantasy to horror or teen drama to romantic love story without ever really satisfying or delivering as any of them. Bucharest seems almost deserted, apart from Vivian's love interest Aiden there are no other human character's at all & so it was hard for me to relate to anything I was seeing, the mythology of the Werewolf world that Blood and Chocolate tries to create leads to some very stiff dialogue scenes that are supposed to be dramatic & meaningful but they have no narrative impact & come across as ridiculous & surreal.I suspect that Blood and Chocolate was conceived as a teen friendly romantic fantasy horror but as a love story it's predictable (a mismatched couple's love for one another sees them through a bad situation), as a fantasy it's poor (when the Werewolves change they change in a bright flash of light into just a normal Wolf, for me I like my killer Werewolves to actually look like fearsome monsters rather than a rather tame looking Wolf) & because it's aimed at a teen audience there is no horror here & everything is very tame with no blood or gore & at the end Vivian & Aiden take time out to save three of the bad Werewolves from burning to death. Surprisingly short on special effects the ones present are OK but nothing great, the transformation scenes really do look silly despite the makers obviously trying to film them to look elegant. To be honest it's never really explained why the Werewolves actually need to change into Wolves, while still in human form they seem to have great strength & agility (lost of scenes of people hopping around & trying to look cool but coming off as looking silly) yet while as a Wolf they seem to have no great ability whatsoever & are obviously a lot more vulnerable.Released theatrically during January 2007 this was a box-office disaster taking in only just over two million dollars, actually filmed in Bucharest in Romania the film looks quite nice with fairly attractive Earthy looking colours throughout. The acting is poor, Agnes Bruckner looks bored, the two main villains look like they belong in boy bands & I suspect most of the actor's were cast due to their looks rather than their acting ability.Blood and Chocolate is a reasonably nice looking film with some striking locations but the horror is so diluted, the romance is so flat & sterile while the film as a whole is so predictable that I couldn't recommend it as I didn't think much of it myself. Trying to cash in on the success of the Twilight saga Blood and Chocolate is a poor relation in all respects.