'Woman in Black' a few frights short of scary
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Daniel Radcliffe shows his versatility in "The Woman in Black."
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"The Woman in Black" is a ghost story for beginners.
It stars Daniel Radcliffe, is rated PG-13, and runs just 95 minutes. At a preview, a cluster of moviegoers audibly reacted now and then, but the jolts were mild, barely raising any gooseflesh and certainly not electrifying audiences the way "Insidious," "The Orphanage" or "The Shining" did.
As he did with his triumphant run on Broadway in "How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying," the "Harry Potter" star proves he is more than a one-trick performer.
- Starring: Daniel Radcliffe, Ciaran Hinds, Janet McTeer.
- Rating: PG-13 for thematic material and violence, disturbing images.
Here, he plays Arthur Kipps, a doleful London lawyer whose wife died giving birth to their son four years earlier. Kipps is put on notice that he will be fired unless he shapes up on the job, which sends him to a remote English village to settle the affairs of a deceased eccentric woman.
Except for a passenger (Ciaran Hinds) he meets on the train, the residents of Crythin Gifford are an unwelcoming lot. Kipps is first told there is no room at the inn and when he shows up at the office of the local solicitor who is to assist him, he's given the bum's rush. Everyone wants him to get out of town, but he doesn't know why.
But his visits to decaying Eel Marsh House, where the client lived at the end of a road that washes over with the tide, and sightings of a woman in black begin to coincide with mysterious deaths. To leave prematurely will mean losing his job; to stay may mean losing his life or putting his adorable son in deadly peril.
"The Woman in Black" is based on the 1983 novel of the same name by Susan Hill, which opens with Kipps as a onetime widower long happily remarried. His stepchildren are sharing fanciful ghost stories around the fire on Christmas Eve, a pursuit in which he can take no pleasure. He knows a real horror tale and his recollection makes up the bulk of the book, which admittedly ends in a way that moviegoers might reject.
A straight adaptation of the novel would have been better than what director James Watkins ("Eden Lake") and screenwriter Jane Goldman cook up, relying on some tried-and-true tricks such as faces appearing fleetingly at windows, an empty rocking chair that tips wildly into motion and things that go bump in the night and day.
The movie has atmosphere to spare but never lives up to the promise of its opening scenes, including an interlude of childhood innocence that ends in death, times three.
Mr. Radcliffe's real-life godson, Misha Handley, plays his child, and the pair have a nice rapport in their few scenes. The former boy wizard is perfectly believable as a young father and working man, and the supporting cast not only includes Mr. Hinds but the Oscar-nominated Janet McTeer ("Albert Nobbs") as his wife.
The actual woman in black remains elusive, and the movie drops in mentions of spiritualism and superstition without really exploring them. Its conclusion is designed to be chilling and comforting, but one ends up canceling the other out.
Its biggest failure: It's just not scary enough.
First Published February 3, 2012 12:00 am
