Starring Daniel Radcliffe, Janet McTeer and Ciaran Hinds. Written by Jane Goldman. Directed by James Watkins. 14A. 95 min. Opens Feb. 3.
Daniel Radcliffe swaps his Harry Potter specs for a pair of Victorian-era sideburns in his first post-Hogwarts film, The Woman in Black. That’s about the boldest choice he makes in this standard-issue gothic ghost story, which provides the erstwhile boy wizard with a remarkably unchallenging transition from the blockbuster franchise.
In this second screen adaptation of Susan Hill’s 1983 novel, Radcliffe stars as a struggling young English lawyer sent to a remote coastal village to clear up the estate of a dead old lady. There, he encounters strange hostility from the locals and spooky phenomena in the deceased’s vacant, isolated house. It’s all tied to the vengeful spectre of the title, who seems to have it in for the village’s children.
Director James Watkins—who helmed the superior 2008 thriller Eden Lake—attempts a genteel style of horror. His prologue, involving three angelic little girls, even plays like an homage to Peter Weir’s exquisitely eerie Picnic at Hanging Rock. But he soon lapses into clichés. We get a haunted nursery, creepy wind-up toys, even a rocking chair borrowed from Psycho.
Radcliffe’s performance is likewise low-key but predictable. As the lawyer, a young widower with a small son, he’s called upon to be sensitive, frightened, yet resolute—all qualities he’s amply displayed in the Harry Potter flicks. We know the 22-year-old actor is no coward about expanding his range. He has already made successful forays into the theatre, playing a sociopath in Equus and a corporate ladder-climber in the musical How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying. To break the Potter mould, he needs to make the same kind of daring leap onscreen.
