31 Years, 31 Screams: Wolf

Posted by J.D. Dunn on 10.28.2008

Inside every man there are two people-one good, one beast

Wolf (1994)
Director: Mike Nichols
Writer: Jim Harrison, Wesley Strick
Starring: Jack Nicholson, Michelle Pfeiffer, Christopher Plummer, James Spader and David Hyde Pierce
MPAA: [R]
Runtime: 125m.

Surprisingly… or maybe not, this was one of Jack Nicholson's dream projects. Nicholson, along with his writing partner, Jim Harrison, tried to get this project off the ground for ten year. When they finally did, the film became a modest hit when all the receipts were added up. One wishes, though, that the film Harrison and Wesley Strick (a hit-or-miss screenwriter if ever there was one) started in the first hour or so extended through the rest of the running time instead of turning into what is just another werewolf movie. The first half of the film features Nicholson as Will Randall, a brilliant but ultimately meek literary agent. When we first meet Will, he's on his way home from Vermont. Of course, we get the requisite "Did I hit something?" scene where Will gets bitten by a strange wolf. Will returns home and gets the normal shots for animal bites and tetanus before returning to work at Alden House books. Randall is liked but not really respected. He's just another guy who always went along with the flow to get ahead. He does have a small cadre of loyalists including Roy ("Frasier's" David Hyde Pierce) and Stewart, who may or may not be loyal (since he's played by James Spader, we can assume he's not). At any rate, Will doesn't have much power. The tide turns against Will when Raymond Alden (Christopher Plummer), his boss, assigns him to a post in burgeoning Eastern Europe in the hopes that he'll either quit or go away. Will acquiesces at first because "what can he do?" Of course, Stewart Swinton double-crossed him and took Will's job behind his back. At least he gets to meet Alden's beautiful daughter Laura (Michelle Pfeiffer, playing a role intended for Sharon Stone and acting like it). But then a funny thing happens on the way to Eastern Europe. Will sleeps in… all day. When he awakens, he's virile, ravenous, and downright – aggressive. At work, he can hear and smell things from several yards away (like a coworker's morning tequila breath). He even hears the plan to oust him and replace him with Stewart. The New Will gets aggressive and realizes that he still has a shot at keeping his old job. He calls his most valued clients and tells them that he's starting his own publishing house. He tells Roy to do the same. Of course, they don't have the capital for this kind of thing, but it's a good bluff. Alden relents and gives Will his job back, telling him that he'd never fire him if he knew he was such a ruthless bastard. Will's personal life goes awry, though, when he finds out his wife has been sleeping with Stewart. He doesn't really care about her, though, because the love was pretty clearly gone, and besides, it gives him a chance to hook up with the lovely-but-abrasive Laura Alden. When Will's wife turns up murdered (ripped apart, really) and it looks like he did it, it's up to him to protect Laura from a younger, faster, better werewolf on the block. Wolf is the first major werewolf film to take the approach of "say, this isn't so bad at all." When we see Will turn his life around, or, as he puts it "The worm has turned and it's packing a fucking uzi," we can't help but be happy. In fact, the whole first half seems more like a superhero movie than anything. Meek little guy involved in accident gains superpowers. It's like Spider-Man all over again – only manlier. The film falters a little in the final act when it turns into a straight horror film. Mike Nichols had set up a more complex idea in the first half of the film, and it would have been nice to see some resolution to the idea of werewolf-as-corporate-climber.

The 411: What starts out as not just another werewolf movie eventually succumbs to its roots and becomes just another werewolf movie. The idea of a man with wolfen powers fighting in the corporate world is an intriguing idea, though, and it makes the film worth a look. B