With its gruesome premise, gothic sensibilities, and empathy for the monster, Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein has clearly been informing pretty much the entire career of Guillermo del Toro. Now, though, he’s finally been afforded the chance to adapt the tale directly for this lavish new take and the result is…pretty inessential. As we’ve come to expect from del Toro, his Frankenstein is grand and good-looking – with his unmistakeable design philosophy in every corner of every frame – and heartfelt, but he’s said and done everything here before in more striking and effective ways.
If you’ve read the book, or just absorbed its story through the countless works it’s inspired, there will be no surprises here. Del Toro faithfully reconstructs the episodic nature of Shelley’s novel, framing the story as it is told to a Danish sea captain from two perspectives, first through the eyes of Victor Frankenstein (Oscar Isaac) and then via his undead Creature (Jacob Elordi). The result is a rather sluggish pacing – this Frankenstein runs at a full two-and-a-half hours and it really feels like it as it shuffles and rumbles towards its foregone conclusion.
Del Toro’s distinct visuals separate this from the rest of the Frankenstein pack – the sets, props, and costumes all look sublime – and he does bring a few new thematic elements of his own, adding an Oedipal element to his Victor by having Mia Goth play both his mother and his younger brother’s wife with whom he becomes infatuated. It adds another unsettling and offputting note for Isaac to play, and he’s pretty good as a truly monstrous creator, honing in on the cowardice of Victor that leads him to abandon his creation.
Elordi is also decent value as the Creature, his large-ness making for an instantly imposing presence, even as a slightly prettified version of the monster – less Boris Karloff and neck bolts than the big buff blue aliens from Prometheus, right down to a couple of unnecessary punch-up action sequences. Best in show, though, is easily David Bradley in a rather brief role as the old blind man who teaches the Creature language and friendship. He brings such warmth and understanding to the screen that you fall under his spell of kindness just as swiftly as the still-innocent Creature does, an actual mythical moment in a film mostly made of guts and sinew.
If you pictured in your mind’s eye what a GdT Frankenstein would look like, I doubt you’d find much different in the actual finished product. That, in and of itself, is no problem – like plenty of other audiences, seeing del Toro’s vision for this primordial sci-fi story is an exciting prospect for me. What shocks, then, is that it’s not a vision that can fully sustain itself for 150 minutes, with excellent individual elements and single moments forced to elevate a whole that is, if you’ll pardon the pun, a little lifeless.
Jack Blackwell – Film Reviews 