By Anne Brodie
Guillermo de Toro’s florid version of Mary Shelley’s classic horror story Frankenstein gets the full CGI, over the top treatment typical of the filmmaker. It could have benefitted from a slightly less in-yer-face with some degree of naturalism, more suggestion than showmanship. It’s the famous fable about playing around with death, as Dr. Frankenstein (Oscar Isaac) did in enlivening corpses by applying artificial energy. He felt he’d taken medicine to a new level to help people live better, and presented his “creation” to medical experts with mixed results and warnings. He succeeded, creating a monster ( current movie heartthrob Jacob Elordi) and lived to regret it. The opening scenes of a man / monster appearing from under the Arctic ice near a shipwreck and the fate of the stranded sailors is chilling on every level and rather exciting. Of course, Frankenstein’s obsession to perfect an undead creature harks back to his childhood, so let’s get psychological. He was beaten by his hateful father everywhere but his hands to save them for his imposed future as a doctor. When his beloved mother dies, he informs his father that he will conquer death. Christoph Waltz is his benefactor who funds his work, which of course takes place in a scary tower and falls in love with Walz’s fiancée Elizabeth (Mia Goth) – not good. Del Toro’s magnificent art direction is full on Victorian Gothic fantasy and reason alone to see the film, but it’s outré handling of an already horrifying tale left me more moved by the look than the feel of the thing. Streaming now on Netflix.
But no fear, Elordi bounces back as that his darkly handsome, romantic dude Heathcliff in Wuthering Heights, alongside equally winning Margot Robbie. Eleanor Fennell’s adaptation of Emily Brontë’s romance classic opens on Valentine’s Day a few short months from now.