Gretel & Hansel

UPDATED - Update at bottom

THE GIST: Times are grim in this faraway land, and the people are starving. When madness seems to take hold of her mother, a young girl runs away with her little brother in search of food and safe shelter. In the woods, however, they stumble upon the abode of a powerful witch.

This modern retelling of the famous Brothers Grimm fairy tale is, unfortunately, not very successful.

Sophia Lillis shows a lot of promise in the main role of Gretel, and the movie rests on her young shoulders for most of its rather short run time. Alice Krige, whom I find to be an excellent actress, also does great work of portraying the scary witch who lives in the woods.

The visual effects are believable, the cinematography is very good, and the production design is top notch. They certainly provide plenty of scares. And yet, the end result left me wanting. I can only blame the screenplay here, although I also find it hard to pinpoint what is missing. Perhaps the original tale is just not substantial enough to translate into a full-length feature.

THE BOTTOM LINE: I knew from the low critical scores it received that Gretel & Hansel wasn't going to be memorable, but I was curious to see it in motion picture form. If you feel the same way, then check it out, otherwise, you're better off watching something else.

UPDATE: I watched this movie again at home on DVD with the subtitles and I stand by my initial assessment, however, it's not just the script that's to blame, but the director as well.

Thanks to the subtitles, I was able to understand words and lines here and there that were either too low to hear or too mumbled/muffled to understand in the theater. The new understanding cleared up a few things I hadn't gotten in the theater. The usage of old English and an older sentence construction also made it harder to understand, at least for me, but that's more forgivable then low volume or unclear delivery, since the original material is old.

The director I blame because frankly the movie never lingers on subjects or events the amount of time necessary to digest and enjoy them or to simply build suspense, which the genre clearly benefits from. The editor is certainly responsible for the pacing, but at the direction of the director, so I blame the latter above all.

I'm glad I re-watched the movie, but my grade stands. Because of its shortcomings, it doesn't deserve a higher grade.

Grade: 5