“An entertaining fairy tale that once again showcases Verbeek’s talent, and masks his shortcomings as an engaging storyteller through Jessica Reynolds’ stunning performance.”

A leopard cannot change its spots. That’s the lingering idea after watching David Verbeek’s latest, The Wolf, the Fox & the Leopard. Although it’s really about the wolf. The film, an improbable hybrid of Nell and Poor Things with a dash of Deepwater Horizon, is a tale of nature vs. nurture that stands tall on the frail shoulders of an impressive Jessica Reynolds (Kneecap), who gives an intense and committed performance. Penned by Verbeek himself, this dark fairy tale with ecological overtones is deftly directed by the Dutchman in a return to form after the disappointing vampire flick Dead & Beautiful. Despite a few plot holes the size of an oil rig, The Wolf, the Fox & the Leopard is a must for fans of genre cinema that digs a little deeper.

The story starts with Dylan (Lucas Lynggaard Tønnesen), although he is neither wolf nor fox nor leopard. Dylan is just Dylan, and thinking about his future makes Dylan unhappy. What also makes him unhappy is his relationship with his girlfriend, so much so that while en route to a hiking trip he dumps her by getting out of her car and walking into the woods. An ill-considered plan, which soon proves to be a fatal one when he runs into a pack of wolves (Verbeek uses real wolves and the power of imagination; pay attention, Guillermo del Toro!). But one of the wolves is not what it seems.

This is where the story really starts, as told by Naomi Kawase in voice-over, as we come upon a feral girl (Reynolds), naked and on all fours. She runs with the pack, growls and yelps like a wolf, and eats rabbit straight from the skin. But when a search party for Dylan stumbles upon the wolfpack, she is mistaken for a girl and taken to be studied in a laboratory, which is where she connects to Japanese scientist Tanaka (Kawase, in her return to acting). She still growls and snarls, surrounded by grey concrete that she can’t dig her way through, but eventually gives up and accepts that she will not see her pack again.

It is at this point that the fox (Marie Jung) and the leopard (Nicholas Pinnock) enter the story, two environmental activists who whisk her away from the lab and take the girl to their home on an abandoned oil rig (how they are able to do all this without opposition requires substantial suspension of disbelief, but fairy tales are allowed such luxury) with the intention of raising her like a daughter. They name her One, and prepare her for a new world that will arise after the impending climate catastrophe has tipped over. During a period of years they teach One to be human. She starts walking on her hind legs and learns to speak, even though her development is still in the infancy stage. Sexual awakening and her discovery of a castaway that Leopard keeps hidden turn One into a rebellious teenager who wants to leave home, but what is out there in the world for her?

Verbeek’s films are often meticulously constructed, and The Wolf, The Fox & the Leopard is no exception. The film is a visual treat in which Verbeek’s dynamic direction fits well with the animalistic mind of the wolf girl that’s central to the story. Dynamic camera movement paired with Reynolds’ impressive ability to run through a forest on all fours enhance each other, heightening the belief that this girl is really some human-wolf hybrid. Even on the oil rig, when she hasn’t shed all of her animal instincts yet, the roving camera keeps the film flowing with a restlessness that puts the viewer on edge. Verbeek’s focus on composition and choreography of a scene make him stand out as a director on a technical level, but often make his films a bit clinical and soulless, as if too much thought has gone into them. This is where Reynolds comes in to imbue the film with a heart. On a physical level alone, her performance is impressive. Whether it’s comfortably walking around on four limbs or slightly awkwardly on just the two, her progress in turning wolf into human is full of subtleties, which extend to her use of language and the ability to enunciate. But it’s Reynolds’ raw emotions, from those of a caged animal to One’s desire to be loved, that give the film a beating heart to root for. Her awkwardness in the film’s final third is endearing, which makes the final twist all the more surprising and refreshing. Verbeek reintroduces Tanaka, who has become a successful writer by telling One’s story, cleverly linking Kawase telling the story in voice-over throughout the film to the way we have seen the drama unfold. In an epilogue the two meet again, for the first time since One was snuck out of the laboratory and away from the woman who showed her empathy. But a leopard can’t change its spots. The Wolf, the Fox & the Leopard is an entertaining fairy tale that once again showcases Verbeek’s talent, and masks his shortcomings as an engaging storyteller through Jessica Reynolds’ stunning performance.