Time of the Wolf

Many have accused the Tapehead of having standards far too low for normal people or worse, none at all. Well, here is one that does not even come close to hitting my substandard standards.


Time of the Wolf (2003) Beware of French movies, they can sometimes be difficult to take. Hmmm, I guess you can say the same about the French in general. Anyway, this post-apocalyptic drama is typical of many French movies, no beginning, no end, but a painfully long middle where nothing is resolved and not a heck of a lot happens. Intellektuals liked this flick because it deals with humanity’s behavior under stress and, I think, tries to show how fragile modern society can be if major systems fail. The story goes something like this. A family drives to their country cabin only to find another family living there. The husband is killed and the wife and her two kids flee. No one will help them and they find refuge in an old wooden shed. The young daughter accidentally burns it down causing much emoting by the stars. By this time, you finally figure out that everyone is acting rude and unhelpful because of some sort of global disaster and not just because everyone is French. Talk about misdirection! And to boot, it seems anyone connected with the French government has bailed out and disappeared. Oh those lovable French!The family finally takes refuge in a train station with a bunch of other rude people and spends the rest of the movie waiting for a train and arguing about who has the water concession. They wait a really long time and the train never comes, but by golly, they don’t give up and they wait some more. News is heard that supplies are more plentiful in the South and are having a hard time getting to the North. Apparently, these poor souls are in the North but we never really find out. Many farm animals are dying from contaminated water but you have to take a wild guess as to what kind of disaster has happened because no one ever asks anyone else what’s going on. The heroine’s son gets depressed and contemplates suicide and her daughter takes up with a loser. Then, suddenly you are looking out a moving train’s window for about 2 minutes and the credits start to roll. Excuse me, but did the director have any idea where he was going with this? As I said, not a lot happens and nothing is resolved and I mean nothing, by the end of the movie. The movie is rated R for: very realistic horse killings, gratuitous dead teen’s breast, live teen’s bum, rude French people, hysterical French people, too many French people, a few Polish people, not enough trains, inane conversations, excessive goat’s milk, and for absolutely no ending whatsoever.