Director: Guillermo del Toro
Actors: Oscar Isaac, Jacob Elordi, Mia Goth, Christoph Waltz
Genre: Drama / Fantasy
Rating: MA
‘Frankenstein’ is probably the 20th remake of the early-19th century novel & 1931 film. While we all know the broad strokes of the story, this film does a great job of immersing us in Victor Frankenstein (Isaac)’s early history and motivations, including father (Dance), mother, and brother William (Kammerer) – as well as (literally) fleshing out the story of the Creature/monster (Elordi). Still set in the 1800s, mostly in Scotland, the cinematography is great and the semi-flashback narrative works well.
This ‘Frankenstein’ is definitely not a traditional horror
film, with no jump scares – yes, some gore, blood and gross moments, but
nothing too gratuitous or extreme. And while Victor gets more screen time, the
Creature gets his fair share and the scenes with him trying to live alone are
quite touching. The core of the film hinges on their infatuation with Elizabeth
(Goth), William’s fiancé and niece of Harlander (Waltz), who has a pivotal
role. All the actors are strong, with Isaac doing a great job of treading the
line between confident and crazed, and Elordi giving the Creature a heart.
Good to see use of makeup and not just CGI throughout. The
ship set and the castle set are both impressive. It’s maybe slightly long at 2
hours 20min, but it’s Del Toro’s best film since ‘The Shape of Water’ and
shares a few themes. While there’s the obvious playing God and not opening
Pandora’s box allegories, there’s also the relatable themes of what it means to
be human and where our individual humanity comes from.
Overall: A very enjoyable human journey/tragedy
Gav’s Rating: 4 stars
No comments:
Post a Comment