Will Randall (the incomparable Jack Nicholson) is on his way home from a business trip when he strikes a wolf. Who would have thought? A wolf? In this day and age? But still, he hits a wolf. When he gets out to check it, it bites him. What is this world coming to?
Over the next few days, the bite starts to take hold of him, but it's not all bad - at least, not at first. The wolf seems to have imparted some of its qualities to Will, and he finds that his senses are sharper, and for the first time in a while, he feels more awake (though he had to sleep for twenty hours first). Then he can see without his glasses, hear every little thing that happens and his libido awakens with a vengeance. But that's just the start.
Where the old Will Randall had been meek, to put it mildly, the new Will Randall decides to take on the world and leave no prisoners. Stewart Swinton (James Spader), the conniving worm who stole his job and his wife, is suddenly the target of his ire, and look out - because Will isn't going to stop until he gets what he has coming to him.
Laura Alden (Michelle Pfeiffer) also gets a taste of the new Will, in more than one sense, when she takes him in as Will visits her father. But what becomes a simple dalliance to annoy her father becomes so much more when Will takes a liking to her, and decides that she will be a part of the new him.
This new spin on the werewolf tale is interesting, although it really doesn't do anything particularly daring. Mostly it just watches the emergence of a tired old man into a new being, and then we watch as the spirit literally eats through him. A nice twist at the end leaves us wondering just what he's left with Laura - is it the gift that he has passed on, or just a flash of light?
Rated R for language, sensuality and violence.
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