Werewolf, schmerwolf; NicholsonÍs acting ruins a pretty decent movie

Nichols' Wolf -- It's a Dog.

When I saw the trailer for Mike Nichols' Wolf, I was hoping that finally some sort of "monstrous human" film would emerge that wasn't so darn corny. It was like everything you get out of a book by Stephen King or Anne Rice - dark, subtly erotic, interesting. In fact, the preview let a lot to be discovered -- there were no angry mobs of townspeople with silver bullets or wooden stakes and crucifixes hanging everywhere, just a haunting musical score and a full moon. I was intrigued.

What a tease.

The film does contain some rather clever handling of the age old tale of wolf bites man, man starts to become wolf. Yet in the end, it emerges as silly as all the other adaptations.

Here's a brief synopsis of the film: while taking care of some business in Vermont, Nicholson is bit by a wolf he hits on a dark snowy road while en route back to New York. Nicholson plays a senior editor in chief of a magazine whose job is in jeopardy due to company politics. His protege' in Marketing (the eternal frat-boy from hell James Spader) promises to leave if Jack is asked to leave, when in fact he is after Nicholson's job.

At an ultra-pretentious dinner party, Nicholson starts to feel the effects of his "wolfdom" and wanders off toward the estate barn. He runs into a radiant Michelle Pfeiffer, the daughter of Nicholson's wealthy publisher who settles him down and the two exchange a suggestively sexual encounter.

Nicholson is demoted by Pfieffer's father Alden (Christopher Plummer) that evening and returns home to sleep for the entire day. When he awakens, he's a new man. His senses are acute to the exponential form, he no longer needs his glasses, and he can smell liquor on people's breath a mile away. Yet his life continues to be full of some much needed-to-be-released baggage. After smelling Spader on some of his wife's clothing, he finds her in bed with him. This is the last straw - he bites Spader and promises to make him pay.

Enter Pfeiffer. The now unemployed and older (i.e., read "unacceptable") Nicholson is a fine companion for the rebellious and spoiled Alden daughter. Their chemistry is magnetic. Their dialogues sound like two people who are just so tired of the popular and meaningless lines and want to finally find someone who won't let them down.

Does this sound like a werewolf movie? No, and that is why this film at first seems so good. There is no unoriginal onslaught of gore and fangs and hair and howls and all that B-movie crap. It's predominately pure drama. A man who just happens to be bitten by a wolf falls in love and gets his downtrodden life together.

Yet Nichols screws it up. With blood and gore coming to the screen the tone is completely changed, soiled, ruined. Spader gets the wolf bug, and although his transformation is refreshing, the lowdown between him and Nicholson seems completely unnecessary.

Pfeiffer's departing quotes save the film from complete buzz kill, her delivery is icy, surprising, cool. Yet then is this film a comedy now?

Wolf is worth seeing simply for the chemistry between Nicholson and Pfieffer and the cinematography of a luminescent New York. Yet the gore and special effects (Wouldn't something like Jurassic Park contribute to werewolves looking less like Ewoks?) are completely in utile.