Frankenstein

 

There have been 433 feature films, 212 short
films, 85 TV series and 340 TV episodes featuring
Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein in some version or
interpretation. That sounds like a lot.
I can’t speak to 95% of those other hundreds of
versions. This is Guillermo del Toro’s version, and
it is a very different one than I’ve ever seen.
Half of the movie is told from Victor Frankenstein’s
point of view, and the other half is told from the
creature’s point of view. That makes it a very
interesting movie.
The question the movie forces you to answer is,
who is the actual villain in the story.
Victor is the son of a surgeon whose failure to
save his mother, played by Mia Goth, during
childbirth instills in him a drive to find a cure for
death.
There is a storyline of his not-so-great relationship
with his brother William, played by Felix
Kammerer, and his forbidden love for his brother’s

fiancée Elizabeth, also played by Mia Goth.
Oedipus complex much?
Victor Frankenstein, played by Oscar Isaac is
totally obsessed with the idea of creating the
creature and defeating death, and when he
succeeds, he’s not sure what to do with what he
has made.
The movie is a sometimes long 2 ½ hours, del
Toro has a lot to say. It is Rated R for bloody
violence and grisly images.
The creature is played by Jacob Elordi, and the
makeup is excellent. Elordi spent over 10 hours in
the makeup chair. Sometimes he would arrive at
the makeup trailer at 10PM and stay up all night to
be ready to shoot. Guillermo says Elordi worked
many 20 hour days and never complained. To play
the creature Elordi studied Japanese Butoh dance
and Mongolian throat singing to have the right
mannerisms.
Christoph Walz played Harlander, an arms dealer
who financially supported Victor, and helped him
get dead bodies from the wars he supported.

Charles Dance played Leopold Frankenstein,
Victor’s abusive father. Being a doctor himself, he
taught Victor medicine, but in a very harsh way.
When Victor’s mother died, he blamed his father,
and was set on defeating death, whatever the
cost.
One of the things that follows the book is the
creature’s friendship with the blind man. This is
how the creature’s humanity is fully revealed to us,
and we get to know him and what life is like for
him.
There are some trivial impossibilities that you
might notice, but you have to ignore them in a
movie based on impossibilities. It’s like critiquing
Superman’s cape, you are pointing out something
about a thing that not possible in the first place. So
let it go and enjoy a beautifully made movie, which
is what this is.
As I pointed out, the movie can be a little long, but
I really enjoyed Guillermo del Toro’s take on a
story he is truly passionate about.
My Score: A very solid 5 Buds.