The Wolf and the Lion; Grade: D+
The Wolf and the Lion tells a story about a pianist named Alma (Molly Kunz) whom returns to her grandfather’s private island home, as her grand father recently passed away. In a small video message Alma’s grandfather informed Alma that a White She-Wolf visits the house and every now and then, as her grandfather was a pro animal kind of guy. Alma on her walk encounters a lion cub falling into her arms, as the lion cub had endured a plane crash in which the lion was suppose to be transported to the circus. Alma comes home to not only a lion cub, but also a baby wolf that the She-Wolf gave birth to. Alma now has not only a responsibility to take care of these wild animals, but also decide upon if she does pass her big exam whether to go forward with her music path or to stay and help these animals where she doesn’t want them out in the wild and especially not in the circus.
The Wolf and the Lion does have a couple positive things to say. While this film is most definitely a pro animal rights and anti circus kind of film, the film however does an appropriate job in showcasing that even though their against the circus… There more so against the circus for the mistreatment of animals, than the circus itself. Like the film mainly showcases the amazing acts done by the human beings, like the coverage was pretty exciting. While for the animal coverage of the circus… It shows the animal being humiliated, as it’s no fun. So I appreciate the fact the film brings up a debate why the circus should go on with just humans alone doing the acts, while the animal acts can be disregarded, nicely done. The animals were enjoyable to watch, kind of reminds me of The Fox and the Hound type of friendship I would say.
The Wolf and the Lion through the first two acts was a pretty basic mediocre type of animal film, however the third act went full absurdity. Enduring these last thirty or so minutes, the bad acting, the bad dialogue, the sequences at hand, and the situations taken place in this story… It feels off tone compared to the first two acts, as it was just very embarrassing to watch. The special effects ordeal regarding the animals wasn’t at all bad, until the animals were seen by a street light as you can clearly tell it was totally fake.
A lot of the editing choices were pretty bad, lots and lots of bad slow mo effects followed by some choppy editing within sequences that was pretty amateurish. The acting wasn’t at all strong in this film, I’d say Molly Kunz and Graham Greene weren’t too bad, but the rest for a film like this was cringeworthy to say. I appreciate the fact this film at least had something to say while producing it in an effective matter, however the story at hand was just weak for my taste.
Overall, The Wolf and the Lion was meh. I don’t recommend this film. -Mitch Smietana