Wolf (film)

Wolf
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Mike Nichols
Produced by	Douglas Wick Neal A. Machlis
Written by	Jim Harrison Wesley Strick Elaine May (uncredited)
Starring	Jack Nicholson Michelle Pfeiffer
Music by	Ennio Morricone
Cinematography	Giuseppe Rotunno
Editing by	Sam O'Steen
Distributed by	Columbia Pictures
Release date(s)	June 17, 1994 (1994-06-17)
Running time	125 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$70,000,000
Box office	$131,002,597

Wolf is a 1994 American horror film directed by Mike Nichols and written by Jim Harrison, Wesley Strick, and an uncredited Elaine May, with music by Ennio Morricone and cinematography by Giuseppe Rotunno.

The film featured Jack Nicholson and Michelle Pfeiffer in the lead roles, alongside James Spader, Kate Nelligan, Richard Jenkins, Christopher Plummer, Eileen Atkins, David Hyde Pierce, and Om Puri.

Plot

Will Randall (Jack Nicholson) is bitten by a wolf while driving home in Vermont. Afterwards, he is demoted from editor in chief of a publishing house when it is taken over by tycoon Raymond Alden (Christopher Plummer), who replaces him with Will's protégé Stewart Swinton (James Spader). When Will thinks that Charlotte is having an affair with Stewart, he rushes over to his house where Stewart sees Will angry and asks him what the problem is. Will bites Stewart and rushes upstairs to the room to find Charlotte half-naked. His worst fears are confirmed that Stewart is having an affair with Will's wife Charlotte (Kate Nelligan). Will starts to be more aggressive, taking on the characteristics of a wolf.

With the help of Alden's headstrong daughter Laura (Michelle Pfeiffer), Will sets out for his new life. His first escapade as a werewolf takes place at Laura's estate, where he wakes up at night and hunts down a deer. In the morning Will finds himself on the bank of a stream, with blood all over his face and hands.

He visits Dr. Vijav Alezais (Om Puri), who gives him an amulet to protect him from turning completely into a wolf. Alezais asks Will to bite him, as Alezais does not have long to live, and would prefer "demonization to death." After refusing, Will keeps the amulet so that he won't transform at the next full moon. Calling Laura to explain, Will, now a wolf, breaks into the Zoo and steals handcuffs from a policeman. Muggers want his wallet, but he attacks and leaves one of them alive. He wakes up in his hotel, with no memory of what happened.

Will outmaneuvers Stewart at their work and fires him, urinating on his shoes in a bathroom. While washing his hands, he finds fingers in his handkerchief and realizes he killed someone. Stewart attempts to frame Will in order to seize his job back.

Detective Bridger (Richard Jenkins) knocks on Will's door the next day to deliver him the news that Charlotte was found dead with canine DNA over her body. Will then wonders if he murdered Charlotte but it is discovered that Stewart murdered Charlotte. Alarmed, Laura goes to the police station. There she runs into Stewart, who makes an animal-like pass at her. Laura hurries away, making arrangements for her and Will to leave the country.

Stewart follows her and kills her two guards. After a brief struggle in the barn, Stewart tries to rape her, but Will frees himself and they fight. Stewart is shot to death by Laura. After he returns to normal, Will has a brief moment with Laura and then runs into the forest.

Minutes later, Laura shows heightened senses when the police arrive, telling Bridger that she can smell vodka on his breath. The final scene is a close-up of her face fading into dark, lupine eyes, and a close up of Will completing his transformation into a full werewolf.

Cast

• Jack Nicholson as Will Randall
• Michelle Pfeiffer as Laura Alden
• James Spader as Stewart Swinton
• Kate Nelligan as Charlotte Skylar Randall
• Richard Jenkins as Detective Carl Bridger
• Christopher Plummer as Raymond Alden
• Eileen Atkins as Mary
• David Hyde Pierce as Roy MacAllister
• Om Puri as Dr. Vijav Alezais
• Ron Rifkin as Doctor Ralph
• Prunella Scales as Maude Waggins
• Brian Markinson as Detective Wade
• Peter Gerety as George
• Bradford English as Keyes
• Stewart J. Zully as Gary
• Thomas F. Duffy as Tom
• David Schwimmer as Cop
• Allison Janney (later famous for her role on The West Wing) briefly appeared as one of the party guests.

Production

Mia Farrow was an early contender for the role of Charlotte Randall, but was apparently considered too controversial a choice by the film company due to the then-current Woody Allen and Soon-Yi Previn affair.

Sharon Stone turned down the role of Laura Alden, eventually played by Michelle Pfeiffer.

The film's release was delayed for six to eight months, in order to reshoot the poorly received ending.

Release

Box office

Wolf grossed $65,012,000 domestically and $131,002,597 worldwide, while making another $34,000,000 on US rentals, based on a $70 million budget.

Critical reaction

Wolf holds a score of 60% on Rotten Tomatoes.

Janet Maslin in the New York Times wrote: "So long as it stays confined to the level of metaphor, as it does in the first hour of Wolf, this idea really is irresistible. And Mike Nichols's own killer instincts as an urbane social satirist are ideally suited to this milieu... Only later, when the wolf motif is allowed to become literal, does Wolf sink its paws into deep quicksand... Mr. Nicholson, who actually totes a briefcase for this role and gives one of his subtlest performances in recent years, is well suited to the conversational savagery that marks Wolf at its best... Unlike Francis Ford Coppola, who revealed a surprising enthusiasm for horrific vampire tricks in Bram Stoker's Dracula, Mr. Nichols shows no great gusto for the supernatural... there are admirable performances from Mr. Spader, still turning the business of being despicable into a fine art, and Kate Nelligan, as Will's deceptively brisk and efficient wife... Ms. Pfeiffer's role is underwritten, but her performance is expert enough to make even diffidence compelling. Mr. Plummer, as he should, radiates a self-satisfaction so great it actually seems carnivorous."

Roger Ebert in the Chicago Sun-Times wrote: "Wolf is both more and less than a traditional werewolf movie. Less, because it doesn't provide the frankly vulgar thrills and excesses some audience members are going to be hoping for. And more, because Nicholson and his director, Mike Nichols, are halfway serious about exploring what might happen if a New York book editor did become a werewolf... The tone of the movie is steadfastly smart and literate; even in the midst of his transformation, the Nicholson character is capable of sardonic asides and a certain ironic detachment... What is a little amazing is that this movie allegedly cost $70 million. It is impossible to figure where the money all went, even given the no-doubt substantial above-the-line salaries. The special effects are efficient but not sensational, the makeup by Rick Baker is convincing but wisely limited, and the movie looks great, but that doesn't cost a lot of money. What emerges is an effective attempt to place a werewolf story in an incongruous setting, with the closely observed details of that setting used to make the story seem more believable."

Hal Hinson in the Washington Post wrote: "In its own delightfully peculiar way, the film is the only one of its kind ever made - a horror film about office politics... The movie isn't wholly great; it starts to unravel just after the midway point. Still, there are charms enough all the way through to make it the most seductive, most enjoyable film of the summer... The main attraction, though, is Nicholson - first, last and always - and it's his modulated suavity and wit that make the film so sublimely entertaining... Though Randall becomes more formidable as the movie progresses, Nicholson sustains his low-key, self-effacing style, and somehow the more he keeps his natural dynamism in check, the more his charisma increases... As the world-weary Laura, Pfeiffer doesn't have nearly as much to work with, and so, ultimately, she lends more of her beauty than she does her talent. But with beauty like hers it would seem churlish to complain. Even so, she does bring a ring of true emotion to this bad girl's jaded snarl. Chemistry between the two stars is essential here, and Pfeiffer makes us believe in this improbable love affair. It's Pfeiffer's combination of compassion and terror that carries the last section of the film and gives it class."

Peter Travers in Rolling Stone wrote: "The writer and director are an odd coupling. Harrison, the Michigan poet and novelist (Legends of the Fall), hunts his dinner. Nichols, the urban sophisticate (The Graduate, Working Girl), dines out... No one puts more wicked zest into playing yuppie scum than the gifted Spader - he's a roguish delight... Nichols is a master of the telling detail, and his vision of the New York publishing world as an urban jungle is elegantly stylized and bitingly funny... Nicholson is amazing, finding humor and poignancy in a role that could have slid into caricature. His scenes with Pfeiffer, who gives a luminous performance, have a welcome edge, aided by some uncredited scripting from Nichols' former comedy partner Elaine May... a rapturous romantic thriller with a darkly comic subtext about what kills human values."

Desson Howe in the Washington Post wrote: "The movie - a reunion of Carnal Knowledge alums Nicholson, director Mike Nichols and cinematographer Giuseppe Rotunno - works beautifully when it's rooted in reality, when the Werewolf Thing functions as a multiple metaphor for unleashed-id sexuality and the law of the corporate jungle. It's the underlying threat of Nicholson's transformation that provides the atmosphere. What happens thereafter is best left unrevealed. There are no prizes for guessing that the moon will loom large in Nicholson's life, or that special make-up superstar Rick Baker (who did the hairy-man stuff for An American Werewolf in London) was hired for a reason. Unfortunately, as Nicholson loses his Darwinian foothold in life, the movie takes a backslide too... Pfeiffer's presence seems more the result of agent negotiation than organic storytelling; her character is semi-believable at best - a frigid princess, misunderstood by everyone but instantly amenable to Nicholson partly because there's schizophrenia in her family. Nelligan, Nicholson's wife, has a surprise development (no, she doesn't turn into a werewolf) that's nothing more than plot-convenient. Spader is creepily effective as the ladder-climbing opportunist. He ought to be the poster boy for that T-shirt slogan "Die Yuppie Scum." As for Jack, nobody does it better... Nichols has allowed Wolf to evolve from a well-mounted, supernatural drama to goofy camp."

Todd McCarthy in Variety wrote: "The studio must convince the horror/special-effects crowd to attend a Jack Nicholson / Michelle Pfeiffer / Mike Nichols picture and persuade the film-makers' fans to see a genre pic... But no matter how snazzy the trappings, when you get down to it, this is still, at heart, a werewolf picture... Nicholson begins his performance in a low key and cranks it up only by degrees... By contrast, Pfeiffer's Laura comes across as very hard and brittle. It's not a rewarding role and, given the grandly romantic goal the film fails to achieve, her character needs more shading and generosity of heart. Spader is back playing the sort of loathsome yuppie he excelled at earlier in his career... Nelligan has little to do as the unfaithful wife... Eileen Atkins and David Hyde Pierce as Will's loyal publishing underlings, are dead perfect."

Time Out wrote: "Quite frankly, it's hard to fathom why exactly anyone would have wanted to make this slick, glossy, but utterly redundant werewolf movie... Overall, this is needlessly polished nonsense: not awful; just toothless, gutless and bloodless."

Awards and nominations

Wolf won a Saturn Award for Best Writing for Jim Harrison and Wesley Strick's screenplay, and it was nominated for a further 5 Saturn Awards, in the categories of Best Horror Film, Best Actor (Jack Nicholson), Best Actress (Michelle Pfeiffer), Best Supporting Actor (James Spader) and Best Make-up (Rick Baker).

Ennio Morricone was nominated for the Grammy Award for Best Instrumental Composition Written for a Motion Picture or Television.

Awarding Body	Award	Nominee	Result
Grammy Awards	Best Instrumental Composition Written for a Motion Picture or Television	Ennio Morricone	nomination
Saturn Awards	Best Horror Film		nomination
	Best Actor	Jack Nicholson	nomination
	Best Actress	Michelle Pfeiffer	nomination
	Best Supporting Actor	James Spader	nomination
	Best Writing	Jim Harrison, Wesley Strick	winner
	Best Make-up	Rick Baker	nomination

External links

• Wolf at the Internet Movie Database
• Wolf at AllRovi
• Wolf at Box Office Mojo
• Wolf at Rotten Tomatoes