The Wolf and the Lion – Movie Review
99 Minutes, Rated PG
Written and Directed by Giles de Maistre
**NOTE: this post will be updated with audio once we actually have the chance to talk about it. Until then, enjoy this brief look at my thoughts. Stay tuned.**
Synopsis:
After her grandfather’s death, 20-year-old Alma decides to go back to her childhood home – a little island in the heart of a majestic forest. While there, she rescues two helpless cubs: a wolf and a lion. They forge an inseparable bond, but their world soon collapses as the forest ranger discovers the animals and takes them away. The two cub brothers must now embark on a treacherous journey to be reunited with one another and Alma once more.
This movie… Oh, this movie is bound and determined to make you feel things.
Did you watch The Adventures of Milo and Otis? Homeward Bound?
Did you cry? Were you okay with that?
Well, then this movie may be for you.
The Wolf and the Lion plays like the animal version of a Hallmark Channel Christmas movie, meaning that every moment of it is precisely engineered to engage you on a specific point and elicit a specific response.
Orphan girl raised by her Grandpa, who dies to open the film? Check.
Girl must choose between musical career and staying on grandpa’s island and raising the orphaned lion and wolf cubs? Check.
Wise godfather (played impeccably by the always great Graham Greene, BTW) offering support and (mostly unwelcome) criticism? Check.
Socially deficient scientist?
Curmudgeonly wildlife officers?
Cruel circus owner?
Check, check, checkity-check.
That’s not to say that the overall message of the film is one which should be controversial at all. By all means, 99.9% of humans would agree that the way we shepherd animal life is woefully lacking in some areas.
And, to its credit, the film also, by the time we come around to the end, isn’t completely opposed to some of the more unusual methodologies used in an attempt to undo some of the damage we as the dominant species on the planet has wrought on that same wildlife.
In other words: Alma and the wildlife biologist studying wolves she initially hates on principal come to an understanding (and probably a Hallmark movie of their own after this extended “meet-cute” film).
If you’re an animal lover, you’ll love this movie. If you don’t mind some saccharine in your movies, you should be okay.
But consider yourself warned: if you have a soul at all, something in here will get you.
The Wolf and the Lion will hit theaters in a limited release on February 4, with a wider release to follow.
The Wolf and the Lion stars Molly Kunz, Graham Greene, Charlie Carrick, Derek Johns, Rhys Slack, and Evan Buliung.
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