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Review: The Woman In Black

Updated: Friday, February 10 2012, 02:31 PM CST
Grade: B-

Daniel Radcliffe of Harry Potter fame jumps into a new role set around the late 19th century in hopes that he doesn’t get typecast.  In The Woman in Black, you do forget that he was Harry Potter…maybe because he lost the glasses.  But nevertheless, his facial expressions and body language truly captures someone that is frightened.

A young lawyer, Arthur Kipps (Daniel Radcliffe) lost his wife during childbirth a few years ago.  Soon after, he takes a job at a remote village in England.  While there, Arthur has to handle some financial and legal papers of the deceased Mrs. Drablow.  None of the townsfolk are receptive of him, but he’s befriended by Simon Daily, whose wife has a mental illness.  Simon and his wife lost their son in an accident.  During Arthur’s time there, he finds out of the mysterious deaths of many children.  Also, he continues to see a woman in a black funeral dress and a black veil with dark hollow eyes in a garden and elsewhere.

This is a ghost story, so the gore is left out.  The story is straightforward.  The woman in black lost a son and she wants to be reunited with him so she is very upset and will be until she finds him.  It has a PG-13 rating so that they can capture the younger audience who like to be scared out of their wits.  Demonic-looking dolls and loud sound effects are used to do the trick.  However, it would be even better if they used more.


Ken The Critic’s Movie Review Grading Scale

A – Superb and solid; a movie that will be etched in your mind 10 years from now

B – Good movie, so good in fact that you would want to see it again before it’s out of the theaters; the story may drag in places

C – Average, entertaining at parts; you might want to wait and rent it

D – Lacks a lot from entertainment, plot, realism, development, etc.

F – Terrible and you will want to walk out of the movie; no redemptive qualities whatsoeverReview: The Woman In Black