The Woman in Black

 

Well, some would say that Daniel Radcliffe will forever be seen as Harry Potter and nothing else.  I think that this might be one of the rare occasions when an actor actually takes his job so seriously that he surpasses the media's low expectations of him.  That goes for all of the young Harry Potter actors.  

The Woman in Black, based on a novel by Susan Hill, is about a young lawyer who is asked by his boss to sort out papers on a property that is meant to be sold.  Little does he know that the property he needs to sort out is haunted by a vengeful mother longing for her dead son, taking her anger out on the children of the town.  

This film is your typical horror film.  You've got ghosts, shadows, black and grey everywhere, things popping out of corners.  This film totally relies on the power of sound at just the right moments, and shadows to keep everything eery.  The set design was really well done and the tone of the film was perfect. To top the horror tradition, you actually have a good actor leading the entire thing. 

Now, to transition from some positive to some negative.  Daniel Radcliffe does not really pull off a father or a widow missing his wife, for that matter.  I didn't feel the parental love I should have felt or the inner pain certain flashbacks were telling us he was in.  He may have taken a leap with that one.  As for the events, moving from one to the other, it seemed slow and slightly repetitive.  It took a while for things to get really interesting with the ghost and Radcliffe.  The ending was not satisfying and you don't quite get any closure.  

With a strong performance from the entire cast, all this film needed was more plot dynamic.  Because it lacked this, I give this film 6.8/10.