The Wolf Hour (2019) User Reviews

Watched it for Watts

[tkell31 · 4/10 · 11 April 2022]

Amazing actress and until this movie I assumed she could turn anything into something worth watching, but she met her match here with a bland script and even blander execution. It's still amazing to watch her bring a character to life, it's just the life here is pointless beyond being a neurotic mess. It's a character no one really cares about except for perhaps for her sister. She even pays an escort for some companionship.

We find out that guilt over her past works has her punishing herself, but as soon as she needs the money she goes back to it. Now this is a lady who will dial up an escort, but apparently doesnt know how to deal with a courier service to deliver the only copy of a book she's written? We've got an incessantly ringing buzzer, an issue of no real import it turns out. Much like most of the movie. Turns out needing money makes you overcome your anxiety. Certainly did the trick here.

Plus I dont get the backdrop at all of the 70s riots/son of sam since it adds nothing to what the character is experiencing. A sticky, sweaty mess of a movie it had me wanting to put the AC on, hop in the shower and multi-task the last sixty minutes away. Did the final act make it all worthwhile? Was she a creation for a book or did she live it? Coming through on the other side to be the chic cosmopolitan author she was just four year before her "self-isolation?" Who cares? From her little smile at the end I take it the character we just spent 90 minutes with was just that, a character in her book. That would explain the disjointed scenes and red herring plot points. Bottom line I cant find fault with people for watching it for Watts, I did, but I can marvel at the people claiming it was a good movie.

Watts saves the movie

[rhcppepers · 6/10 · 23 September 2019]

Watts is one of the best actors of the last 20 years. Without her, this movie would have been a disaster. Watch it, just for her performance alone.

Conflicted

[benprichardsdotcom · 6/10 · 24 September 2019]

The acting is pretty good from all the characters, but especially Watts. Visually it's oppressive, the sound design sets you on edge, I hated that buzzer ringing over and over and over again for no purpose. But, the script is atrocious!

This film should never have gotten past the proof readers, it is junk. The idea is great, laden with plenty of opportunity and Naomi Watts definitely has it in her talents to give the storytelling exactly what it needs.

I mean, come on, a sweaty lecherous police officer denied his I'll gotten gains by a handheld radio, in the 70's? They might well have had those radios back then but that is a lazy way to resolve a narrative dead end. And this buzzer that keeps ringing with no one on the other end? Just get it repaired for the love of god. And why place so much emphasis on this serial killer if you're going to abandon it completely?

All in all, it should be a lot better, it's still more enjoyable than say, Hugo or The Zero Theorem - but it ranks alongside those for sheer opaqueness.

Boring and mischaracterized

[jennmyers76 · 3/10 · 13 May 2022]

I'm so tired of movies being called "Hitchcockian" just because a character can't leave their home. In a Hitchcock movie, there's a certain tension, and things actually happen. The character is in danger. This was a movie where nothing happened and then it was over. No suspense, no thriller, certainly no horror. Events outside the apartment had no bearing on events inside the apartment. This was just watching a woman be stressed out for an hour and a half.

So so so long and boring

[BandSAboutMovies · 2/10 · 5 December 2019]

June (Naomi Watts) was once a known counterculture figure, but that was a long time ago, before she cut herself off from the outside world. Now, she now lives alone in her South Bronx apartment as the "Summer of Sam," escalating violence and brutal summer heat threaten to turn New York City into sheer terror.

This was written and directed by Alistar Banks Griffin, the second of his films after 2010's Two Gates of Sleep.

A lot of people ask me if I ever just shut down on a movie, knowing how many bad films I watch. I would trade nearly every direct to WalMart movie I watch this year for this film, a ponderous and doddering odyssey into one woman's sophomore slump and need to never leave the house.

This movie had that moment I dread the most: I pressed pause to see how much more time the film had, thinking that it had to be nearly over. It was only twenty minutes in to its run time. I stuck it out for a little longer. Becca could take no more.

Oh No Naomi! It's a hot mess!

[catfanatic888 · 4/10 · 31 March 2020]

Naomi Watts is a fabulous actress but this movie is pure dreck! It starts out slow and ends up with nothing being of interest. Weak lead character, complete waste of time!!

The modern era encapsulated

[anthonyjlangford · 7/10 · 13 October 2021]

The Wolf Hour is not what it appears at face value. It is an insight, a warning if you like, for the dangers of Technology. And a metaphor for the type of world that the digital realm has allowed to create.

How easy it is, to stay inside to avoid the dangers of the world outside. The world beyond the voices on the intercom. The longer she stays in, of course, the more anxiety is created. A self perpetuating loop. The deeper she goes, the worse it gets. Until every interaction is embued with a threat.

When she finally emerges, it couldn't be at a worse time. A blackout. A riot. A world gone insane. And yet, despite all her fears, she is unharmed. Her fear is the only real danger.

There are many who live this way already. And as the years go by and we disappear more and more into the online world, the less we have to face the real one. Some are growing up unable to truly converse with others. They have not learnt to go through that awkward period in adolescence when we must face the world and overcome our insecurities in order to make our way through the world. Through employment and relationships. Overcoming those mostly groundless fears in order to become confident adults. How easy it is instead, to text our way through life, never having to meet people. Never having to be uncomfortable. As though the purpose of life is to always be 'comfortable.' Never face any fears at all.

We too, can stick to the safety of our couches and our beds and keep the wolves at bay. Or so we think...

Until one day, when the world we thought we could control, comes crashing down and we are forced to face the wolf.

Could've been great, but...

[Go_For_The_Jugular · 4/10 · 22 January 2021]

This film has so much potential...it looks great...it sounds great...but it just goes nowhere. Every few minutes we're introduced to new and interesting characters, all with their own story to tell...but they all fizzle away to nothing.

This was like watching the first part of a 3-part movie...I WANT CLOSURE!

Decent DRAMA- Not a Mystery or Thriller

[jamosmonk · 6/10 · 10 December 2019]

This is MISCHARACTERIZED as a Mystery or Thriller or Suspense. It is a good Drama. And as a drama, albeit almost a ONE person drama, it is decent. All the itinerant characters are acceptably played and Watts is the keystone. I wouldn't pay money to see it, but few movies are worth paying to see anymore. But for a cyberflix of catmouse viewer it's okay, then if you really like it go pay to see it or buy it.

Watts Gives A Commanding Performance

[tkdlifemagazine · 5/10 · 3 June 2022]

Naomi Watts is one of the most gifted and underrated actresses of our time. She commands this role as a depressed author sheltered in a Manhattan tenement apartment during the height of the Son of Sam murders. She is being tormented by a stranger, or is she? As the story unfolds we learn that her novel caused a family uproar and may have contributed to her father's death. The attention to dated details is very, very good. The cinematography is well done. The sense of heat, humidity, and filth in Watts' apartment is palpable. This is more like a play than a movie in some ways. The movie is a one woman show and, while Watts is commanding, I do see how one might find it slow as it was advertised as a thriller and is more of a psychological drama with the emphasis on drama. New York is a central character in this one. There are some peripheral characters, including the S. O. S., and all are relatively damaged. Add a Summer blackout for extra drama.

A pleasant surprise.

[sevengunner · 8/10 · 14 October 2019]

I can only applaud this movie for portraying the most believable picture of anxiety and mental issues. And I love how we get the picture painted of New York and the world outside June's apartment only by looking out of her window and the occasional news broadcast.

This is the kind of movie I really want to re-visit. But I don't look particularly forward to another go at this darkness.. Anyway.. By the end you really feel like you know this woman. Even though we have only had insinuations about her life before we meet her. Insinuations is in fact key in the telling of this story. This movie is in my opinion very well written, very well, directed and very well acted. As a result I was very pleasantly surprised.

Why these bad reviews??

[bertoldoevents · 7/10 · 15 December 2019]

I dont understand this great movie gets all this bad reviews. All i can say is Acting is great Cinematography is good Script is good Its not too long Music and editing is good Actually everything is pretty good and sometimes great so how anybody can give this movie less than average is a mystery or just plain trolling. Feel bad for the director that made a great job with obviously a pretty low mainstream budget

A whole lot of nothing

[godforge-13190 · 4/10 · 2 October 2021]

I am a big fan of Naomi Watts. So I could watch her fold clothes for an hour and a half and be slightly entertained. Unfortunately in this film they go Out of their way to make her look haggard and pathetic. The movie was very slow and shallow. It's basically a movie about a paranoid, self absorbed shut in with an overactive imagination. Poor rich white girl has a bad patch but in the end everything is right as rain. And the whole movie except for about 2 minutes is set in a single dingy room. Not fun. Not scary. Not interesting. And It cured me of my fascination with Naomi Watts.

From the Gutters of New York

[nogodnomasters · 2/10 · 26 October 2019]

June Leigh (Naomi Watts) is a successful author out of money. She has become agoraphobic in her hot NYC tenement. There is a serial killer on the loose that targets women who look like she does. And there is a guy ringing her buzzer and never answers. Repeat for 90 minutes with an occasional visitor.

Very boring.

Guide: F-word.Implied sex. Nudity (Naomi Watts)

Watts' performance cannot save a bad plot

[rossjayp · 1/10 · 1 February 2019]

June (Watts) was a celebrated counter culture author (apparently from a well-to-do family) that wrote a well received novel that was more or less a biography of her father. That biography exposed illicit activities of her fathers company which resulted in legal issues and significant strife within her family. The movie opens with June in self-enforced isolation in a Bronx apartment circa 1977 during a summer heat wave, and if you know your history when there was a large power blackout and subsequent fires and looting.

Watts gives and outstanding performance, but there is little she can do to resolve terrible story writing from writer/director Alistair Banks Griffin.

The first full hour of the movie portrays June as paranoid, depressed, and in obvious self imposed isolation. Suspense build as the viewer assumes that the backstory for June must include some terrible event that shaped her life and made her so fearful. The setting of a bad part of the Bronx during a summer heat wave where she can see crime outside her apartment window reinforced the suspense. There are even radio news snippets that the audience overhears of a serial murderer that is targeting long haired brunettes (you guessed it, Watts' character matches that description). There is also the recurring ringing (and annoying) of her intercom at random hours of the night to make you think somebody is stalking her.

We find out that the horrifying event that has so traumatized June was the impact her book had on her family, and her fear of leaving her apartment has nothing to do with her personal safety, but her fear that she will do more damage to the world at large. We also discover that her ordeal and self imposed isolation has lasted 4 years.

The writer takes 2 full acts of suspense, scene setting, and character building relying on the incredible talents of Watt to keep the viewer engaged to spectacularly let them down with a petty problem that has only a paper thin relationship to the established paranoia.

The third act continues the disappointment as miraculously, a few minor interactions with people (a grocery store delivery guy, her sister, a male prostitute, and a phone call to her publisher) beings a rapid transformation in the character the defies belief. There isn't a clear "thing" that triggers June's transformation. There is an odd conversation with the male prostitute that could have been intended by the writer as the turning point, but it comes off as a non-important moment.

Regardless, the character resolves her writers block and suspends a great deal of her paranoia to allow her to dust of her typewriter and finish her book that was 4 years in the making - all in 1 month.

The final scenes have June leaving her apartment and watching the sunrise while surrounded by the destruction of the nights riots.

This is a really basic story that follows a common hero quest motif (aka The Hero Journey) that most of us learn in grade school English. The only thing that holds the first 2 acts together is Watts' performance and the contrived suspense. The plot device around her paranoia falls flat, and the 3rd act wraps up so rapidly that the lead character just comes off as petty.

I have no idea what the idea was

[HlenSki · 5/10 · 6 March 2021]

I kept waiting for something that never happened. I missed the point or there was none. Watts was great and some plot twists were interesting but it didn't lead to anything, so this movie left me disappointed. There was so much to explore, such a shame it's all a big meh in the end.

A non sensical bore

[Gordon-11 · 7 October 2019]

This film tells the story of a woman who locks herself in her home.

What I can tell you, the film is definitely not a thriller. There is no thrill or suspense. In fact, it is full of boredom. The story is not engaging, not captivating and not sensical. If she is so scared of the outside, I struggle to find it sensical that she keeps the windows wide open. The story doesn't go anywhere either. It is just really boring.

Agoraphobic suspense

[fmwongmd · 6/10 · 10 July 2020]

A well played agoraphobic writer in the time of serial murderer Sam trapped in her slum apartment made suspenseful by the good acting of Naomi Watts.

Nothing, over and over

[catebaum · 2/10 · 23 September 2019]

It seems the creator of this movie wrote in a scene in the bath so he could tell funders he had a nude Naomi Watts and they gave him the cash. There seems no other way this script would have made it to production. It's barely a draft.

Watts is always watchable

[phillas · 6/10 · 4 March 2020]

I really enjoyed the feel of this film and Naomi Watts brings an incredible electricity to her performance.

Slow Burn with no payoff

[Rhusky · 1/10 · 2 July 2019]

The praises from critics on this one actually baffle me. I have never longed for a movie to end as much as I did sitting through this one. I feel the writer had a bunch of ideas in their head for the direction this movie should go and could not decide on one to go with l. Can not recommend enough saving your time and money on this one

Dark side of the 1970s

[prathert · 8/10 · 4 April 2020]

This film is an odd bird. It's set in NYC in 1977 and Naomi Watts plays a woman who is terrified to leave her apartment which is located in a rundown Bronx ghetto. You gradually learn her story in her interactions during visits by the few outsiders she allows into her life as she hovers near a mental breakdown. It's more a play than a film. No violence and a relatively positive ending.

You probably need to have lived through the 70s to appreciate it. But I liked it a lot.

It has its flaws, the title being the most significant. Not sure what they were thinking. But it in no way deserves all the snarky 1 and 2 numeric ratings. IMDB please! drop the numeric rating and make people justify their gripes. A plus or minus for those too lazy to write something would be sufficient.

Way better than at 1st appears

[redinnevada · 7/10 · 3 April 2022]

This is a slow building story. We don't know a lot about this woman's dilemma unless we really watch and listen. As an older person I remember the Son of Sam stories and the New York blackout and riots, looting, etc. It was headline news every night. So I can only imagine a story like this happening.

It's tense. It builds on the agoraphobic nature of the main character, the feminist antagonism of the 70's, the heat, and the rising fear not only for single women in a city but racial tensions were rising in certain areas due to what we now call systemic, institutional racism beyond our neighbors control quite often. Tempers did flare even amongst friendly ones. It was also the rise of the personal ads for prostitution of all kinds that began in New York. James Franco HBO show The Deuce was spot on for that story.

This movie showed all of that VERY well and tautly presented. I think it's well worth the time spent.

Dreary and oppressive

[biljao258 · 2/10 · 2 October 2019]

I've been a fan of Naomi Watts ever since she played perky Betty in Mulholland Drive (1999) and she has a pretty solid filmography ever since ( just a few duds). She has the courage to play 'screw-up personality' roles for instance in the recent (forgettable) mini TV series Gypsy (2017) and now this movie. But not even her acting can offset the dismal and implausible story line and completely unengaging lead character part. How do investors/producers (including Watts as an executive producer) come to think this movie will have any audience appeal?

10 min are enough!

[Valid_ID · 1/10 · 25 November 2021]

If you've watched the first 10 minutes of this movie, you've seen it all.

Naomi Watts is a talented actress, but even her fine acting can't redeem a boring, repetitive scenario.

I am sure some - pretentious- viewers will claim there is something hidden deep within the loopy story line, but it's almost impossible for anyone to relate to this illogical, silly character.