Review: Radcliffe casts new spell with 'Woman in Black'
Written by Roger Moore McClatchy-Tribune Information Services
Re-Posted With Permission
Daniel Radcliffe acquits himself reasonably
well in his first adult big-screen role, a man
haunted by "The Woman in Black."
He plays a young lawyer, a single father
and widower with enough conviction to
make this spooky period piece credible,
though one might wish for a little more fear
in the character and in his performance
when confronted by the supernaturally
sinister.
I guess once you’ve faced down Lord
Voldemort, you ain’t afraid of no ghosts.
Arthur Kipps is a failing young barrister in
the Britain of the early 1920s. He still
grieves for his wife, who died in childbirth,
and pays a little too much attention to the
spiritualist ads in his local newspaper.
That’s how much he longs to see her again.
But he has a young son to support, so he
seizes one last chance to prove himself to h
is firm — a trek to the north of Britain, to
the marshy east coast where he must
rummage through the papers of a family
whose long-abandoned mansion, Eel
Marsh, is to be sold.
The residents of the dank, grey and
backward little village of Crythin Gifford
aren’t very welcoming. There’s no room at
the inn, no smile at any door. They want
him gone, and quick. And as the film’s
opening scene has shown three village girls
hurl themselves out of a window, we know
there’s tragedy there.
Only the county’s wealthiest man, Samuel
Daily (Ciaran Hinds), will give Arthur the
time of day. He hints at an explanation for
the apparition Arthur has seen at Eel
Marsh, but he dismisses it: "Don’t go
chasing shadows, Arthur."
Naturally, that’s exactly what Arthur does.
The house is on an island surrounded by
the incoming tide several times a day, so
he is stranded there with a jumble of
papers, cobwebs and candles for long
stretches of time. And no thump of a
rocking chair or glimpse of a wraith in
black mourning dress can go un-
investigated.
There’s a lot of atmosphere, but not a lot
of urgency to this James Watkins ("Eden
Lake") film. The back story may be only
sketched in, but the chilling moments arrive
with a bracing, hair-raising jolt.
I love the way he uses the simplest effects
— the way Arthur, holding a candle, is
followed across the room through the
reflection of the candle on an old doll’s
glass eye, a simple look of doomed
resignation on a child’s face, an unearthly
hand slapped against a window. Oscar
nominee Janet McTeer ("Albert Nobbs") is a
special effect herself, playing the mercurial,
mad Mrs. Daily.
I was less impressed with the efforts the
film makes to push adulthood onto
Radcliffe. Is he really that close to the
towering Ciaran Hinds in height? Would a
boyish working lawyer really address his
social superior (Daily) by his first name in
that era? (We’ve all seen "Downton Abbey,"
for heaven’s sake.) Too little effort is spent
explaining Arthur’s fearless acceptance
and seeming understanding of the ghost he
sees and pursues.
Those quibbles aside, the bottom line on
"The Woman in Black" is that it is a very
spooky movie. Old-fashioned and old
school, it makes a convincing case for life
after death and, for Radcliffe, life after
Harry Potter.
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