Movie Review Double Feature: Blood and Chocolate/ Breach

Blood and Chocolate was directed by Katja von Garnier and based on the book written by Annette Curtis Klause. It is the story of a woman caught between the loyalty of her Werewolf heritage and her desire to love a human.

Agnes Bruckner plays the lead role of Vivian and Hugh Dancy plays her lead love interest. Agnes seems perfectly cast because when one thinks of hairy wolf women their first thought probably isn't: sexy. Yet her features brought the believability that she could be that wolf woman and at the same time she was appealing. The rest of the cast do fine with their roles as well.

I was surprised that I enjoyed this movie. Critically I think more choose to bash the film than to praise it, however, even though the plot is not an original one altogether, I found its execution to be satisfying. Fans of the book should probably avoid it since it does not follow it very well from what I gather.

Even with the sort of silly scenes where they float angel-like in the air moments before turning into wolves, I found Blood and Chocolate to be a sweet romance and entertainment experience.
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Breach is the Billy Ray directed thriller about the real life case of FBI agent Robert Hanssen selling government secrets to the Russians. The film stars Chris Cooper, Ryan Phillippe, and Laura Linney.

Chris Cooper does a great acting job with any role, however Ryan Phillippe tends to come up lacking. As of this day I still hold Phillippe's performance in Way of the Gun as his best, and in this movie, Breach, I could not look past the large knot on his forehead to pay much attention to his character. His character is of course the new FBI recruit looking to catch Hanssen in the act of espionage.