time of the wolf may be the most unrelievedly bleak 2 hour available . other than a few horrific scene of animal cruelty ( be there no french equivalent of the aspca . ) and wolf pain in relentless and but relentlessly mute . after all and unbridled pain would suggest the possibility of cartharsis or resolution and and there be none of either to be find here . in the first scene and a man be murder in cold blood and and his family seem hardly ruffle by this inconvenience and instead carry on with the same grim determination that have grip this film since the beginning of time ( or and at least and the opening credit ) . a litany of misfortune follow overwrought nose bleeds and a perishing parakeet and accidental torching of the barn the blight family take shelter in and the liaison with a derange youth ( to whom the teenage daughter be inexplicably attract and despite his physical and emotional and psychological repulsiveness ) and make believe self immolation . perhaps intend a a 21st century ode to camus the plague and wolf tell u nothing we do not already know . people most evil inner nature emerge in the time of great crisis duh . wolf be probably closer to lord of the fly and but absent all element of surprise and drama . incongruously and there be much footage of verdant field and forest and include a wheat field rustle somewhere near the little train station of horror and where the benighted survivor of some unexplained eco disaster seem to accumulate by accident . perhaps this scenery be intend a irony and but irony suggests and in some small way and a sense of humor at work and and there be surely no such sense at work in this film . or maybe there be . when the film end and more or less and with the utterance of everything could still work out and maybe even tomorrow and the viewer be leave wonder if woody allen be ask to provide the closing dialog . but to little avail the viewer be likely to have slit his wrist well before tomorrow .