Movie Review: Blood and Chocolate

Blood and Chocolate (2007) 

Directed by Katja Von Garnier 

Written by Ehren Kruger, Christopher B. Landon 

Starring Agnes Bruckner, Hugh Dancy, Olivier Martinez

Release Date January 26th, 2007

Published April 15th, 2007

Agnes Bruckner is a big favorite in the geek community. Her horror movie resume including the cullty, Lucky McKee movie The Woods and the 2005 bomb Venom, have helped her garner her own minor cult. With the wide release of the werewolf flick Blood and Chocolate Bruckner has her highest profile role to date. If only it were a better movie.

Unfortunately for Ms. Bruckner, Blood and Chocolate is more notable for it's goofy title than for it's PG-13 scares.

Vivian (Bruckner) is destined to be the leader of her clan, whether she wants to be or not. As a big anniversary approaches, Vivian is awaiting word of her fate from Gabriel (Olivier Martinez), the current leader of her clan, as to whether she will become his wife. Vivian is a lugaroo, better known as werewolf and according to prophecy she will lead them back to a prosperous existence out of the shadows.

Vivian could care less about prophecy. She has no taste for the hunt and absolutely no interest in be married to Gabriel. Nevertheless, Vivian seems resigned to her fate until she meets Aiden (Hugh Dancy), a writer who arrived in Bucharest to write a graphic novel about the legends of the lugaroo. He believes that the lugaroo are extinct but were at one time a noble race that lived at peace with non-werewolves.

He has no clue that Vivian is a lugaroo and she has no intention of telling him but when his stories get back to Vivian's clan they fear she has told him their secrets. When the clan decides they must kill Aiden to protect their secrets; Vivian must decide between her budding new romance and the legacy of her family and what is perceived as her destiny.

Director Katja Von Garnier is a talented artist whose American debut, the HBO TV movie Iron Jawed Angels, was an accomplished, in depth portrait of the birth of American feminism. A werewolf movie is indeed a bit of a departure but there is a slight feminist undertone to Blood and Chocolate, it's only a touch the girl power, pop feminism of the Spice Girls variety, but it's there.

Like most pop entertainment of the PG-13 variety, Blood and Chocolate is better at referring to depth than it is at exhibiting it. Whether it is passing glance at feminism or an averted gaze at literary classics  like Romeo and Juliet, Blood and Chocolate is puddle deep with lake ambitions.

Agnes Bruckner definitely has star quality but she needs to find better roles. She was terrific in the indie drama Blue Car but has since drifted to teen horror films, The Woods, Venom, that are serving to type cast her as a horror film hottie. While she can continue to get steady work in this genre for years, based on the small cult that has embraced her, she has the talent to work beyond mindless pop entertainment like Blood and Chocolate and should move on soon.

The other star of Blood and Chocolate is not Hugh Dancy or Olivier Martinez, two nice looking but innocuous actors, it's the city of Bucharest Romania. Though the name is not exactly pretty, the city is exceptionally filmable. With it's gothic architecture and ancient churches Bucharest has an eery beauty that is both inviting and menacing.

It helps that it's also one of the cheapest places in the world to film a movie, thus why dozens of Hollywood features have fled to Romania in recent years.

So what about this odd title, Blood and Chocolate? Well, Bruckner's Vivian works in a chocolate shop. Sadly, the title has no relation to the classic Elvis Costello tune of the same title. And that is where the title significance ends. All part of the odd soft headed hodgepodge that is Blood and Chocolate yet another mindless, PG-13  pop horror confection.