Directed by Kenneth Branagh
Starring Robert De Niro, Kenneth Branagh, Tom Hulce, Helena Bonham Carter, Aidan Quinn, Ian Holm and John Cleese
My many, many loyal fans no doubt read last week's review of Bram Stoker's Dracula, a slick, big-budget adaptation of the classic novel that aimed to be a more faithful adaptation of the book than ever before with the benefit of a truly awesome cast. The formula was successful enough that a mere two years later we were graced with Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, a film in the same vein with a similar budget and a cast that ranked slightly behind Coppola's movie on the hoity-toity factor. Another big bonus? We get to see Robert De Niro with a layer cake of makeup cutting promos about the meaning of his life. And that's it for this review. I kid, I kid. The end of the story is that this film wasn't QUITE as successful as Bram Stoker's Dracula, but it still made a nice return. Hell, it even got its own Super Nintendo game.
The movie was largely the brainchild of Kenneth Branagh, the guy who sat behind the director's chair and the primary dude in front of it despite De Niro's spot above him on the marquee. It also had a script co-written by Frank Darabont, a dude who is well-known to horror fans as perhaps the most beloved adapter (?) of Stephen King novels ever. The result is a movie that definitely shows how much talent it employed. It has atmosphere, practical visual effects, really convincing and awesome exteriors and interiors...you name it. In 1994, De Niro also wasn't quite as big of a deal as he was today. He was definitely RESPECTED as all get out, but he was still a LONG way off from the parody of himself that he is now. The dude gave it his all as Frankenstein's Monster in the flick. To say nothing of anybody else who is in this movie (and look at that list above), he definitely steals it. Enough chit-chat. Time for this dog and pony show to start.
It has a framing device VERY similar to the novel, as a sea captain played by the woefully underrated Aidan Quinn on his way to the North Pole is stuck in the ice and spots a man foraging around outside. The man, of course, is Dr. Victor Frankenstein, and he has a story to tell. In flashback form, we're given the people in his life who provide him all the motivation that he needs. There's his adopted sister Elizabeth, who grows up to be played by 1994 Helena Bonham Carter. This means that she is smokin' hot and it is thus totally understandable that she is the love of Frankenstein's life. Things were different in the late 1700s, so what are you gonna do. As the flashback stuff ends, Frankenstein's mother dies, prompting the good future doctor's obsession with conquering death.
Let's talk about Kenneth Branagh in this movie, kids. Again, the character is very faithful to the novel. He's definitely not a hero. He's also definitely not a villain. Antihero? Also, not quite. Doctor Frankenstein in this go-round is complex, a guy who is driven by his need to bring someone back from the dead and does some very strange things because of it. With the way he's written, playing him was definitely no small feat, but Branagh was more than game for it. Since I'm starting to sound like a snooty English major, it might be time to move on from this subject.
By this point, we've met several of the supporting characters. Frankenstein is deep into his relationship with Elizabeth, close friends with Henry Cleval (Tom Hulce) and the student of Professor Waldman (John Cleese). The murder of the latter sets the plot in motion, as Frankenstein finally believes that he has the means to cheat death. Stealing the body of Waldman's murderer and the brain from Waldman himself, he goes about creating his new body, promptly bringing it back to life and recoiling in horror at what he has done.
Yeah, it's a story that you're more than familiar with if you've even a cursory fan of horror stuff. But I can guarantee you that what you're NOT used to is how this plays out from this point on. For starters, this Monster isn't quite Monsterly. The biggest manifestation of this? He actually TALKS. Not so much at first, but he turns into a regular poet laureate as this thing progresses. We get to see what he does pretty in depth after escaping Frankenstein's lab, taking up residence in a poor family's barn and learning English from an elderly blind man. It might sound silly, but it's a strangely moving sequence. Eventually, the Monster learns how to read. And when he reads Frankenstein's own journal, he goes for revenge. I know I've said this already, but it bears regurgitating - De Niro is awesome in this movie. I would even put it up there with his best performances, just a shade below Travis Bickle and miles ahead of anything he's done since, oh, 1998. Isn't that right, Focker?
People new to what Frankenstein is all about need to know this: with a few notable exceptions, the movie adaptations all follow the tried-and-true formula that it's kind of a cat-and-mouse game between the doctor and his creation. In this one, we even get a few emotional scenes as the Monster tracks Frankenstein down and asks him why he has been created in a scene that actually came close to eliciting tears from yours truly. But don't tell anybody that. But...it's not like anyone reads this, so what difference does it make? Really, the whole way that this story unfolds is unsatisfying, particularly when it the Monster learns the best way to hurt Frankenstein.
The first person that I either blame or give credit to depending on my stance on a movie is the screenwriter, and I've got to hand it to both Darabont and his co-writer Steph Lady on this one. Yeah, it's book faithful. But it's faithful in a way that's WAY better than you'd ever expect, because let me tell you something (brother) - I did not like that book. Like, at all. I said last week that I really loved Bram Stoker's actual "Dracula" book as a kid, but this one was torture. It's full of long diatribes that go nowhere and words like "thee" and "thine" all over the place, and I don't have the patience for that stuff. This script modernizes the language while also being pretty damn convincing for its time period. The characters are also ALL handled deftly, from the main eventers (Frankenstein, the Monster and Elizabeth) to the midcarders (Cleval, Waldman, Captain Walton, and a really great side performance from Richard Briers as the blind grandfather who befriends the Monster at hte farm). In short, it's all done in a way to make the conclusion emotionally satisfying, and it WORKS, dammit!
I think that's the big reason why I enjoy this film more than Bram Stoker's Dracula. Yeah, that one had the more famous director, all kinds of Tim Burton-esque dark atmosphere and tons of arty blood and tits being thrown at you. And while it was definitely an awesome movie to look at, it ultimately wasn't very emotional. This movie isn't quite as pretty, but it's also more powerful. And that, folks, is about the highest praise that I can level at a movie these days. It's not perfect by any means; there's a bit of a stretch in the middle involving Frankenstein preparing for his wedding. But when this movie throws its emotional wallops at you, believe me, they deliver - especially the final 20 minutes or so that rank right up there with some of the most eerie and disturbing stuff you'll ever see.
*** 1/2 out of ****. My FAVORITE Frankenstein movie of all time is still the 1931 James Whale-Boris Karloff masterpiece. However, if you're looking for pure emotional power with some awesome performances, go with this one.
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