Having grown up seeing the 'bolts in the neck', flat-headed Frankenstein's monster that has been filmed, screened, parodied, etc since time immemorial (or at least 1931), I finally was able to sit down and actually read Shelley's Frankenstein one August evening several years ago. I was unable to put it down. Shelley's story of Gothic hubris, love and tragedy--note, not much horror, really--totally captivated me. I was driven to read the novella in one night. So naturally when I found out Kenneth Branagh did a version of the tale in the 90s I was excited. Then, unfortunately for me, I watched it. What an over-the-top, overblown mess! The pacing hurtled us forward at such speed I thought I was watching the RD version of the story, taking pause only long enough for Branagh to wrestle naked with The Creature for 5 minutes in a vat of slime, causing me to utter an involuntary 'what the ****?' The acting was ridiculous as well, with otherwise fine actors all cranking up the volume to 11 and doing nothing but either shouting uncontrollably or whispering menacingly and nothing in between.
The only saving grace of that whole affair was Deniro's monster--but he still wasn't quite right...ugly, bald, and short. Not what Shelley described. Shelley didn't describe a flat-headed bolt-necked mumbling hulk either, but I have yet to see the Boris Karloff version so I withhold judgment on that film until I see it. This probably puts me in the minority of Frankenstein viewers (people who read the novel before seeing any film adaptations, except maybe 'Abbot and Costello meet Frankenstein').
Which brings me to this Hallmark adaptation. Finally, I feel, Hollywood has gotten it right. Go figure--it's because this version actually stays close to the source material, and it is excellent because of it. The Creature, for one, looks exactly as I pictured him in the novel, probably because...he looks the way he is described! Is this so difficult to accomplish? It must have been, because nowhere has it been done right before. Other commentators have complained that the Creature in this version is too sympathetic, too well spoken, too well read, etc. My comment to this is--read the book! The Creature was not a hulking horror or a twisted goblin, he was tall, gaunt and creepy (like he is here), but also tormented emotionally and highly self-educated, and it is easy to sympathize with him, just as in the novel.
To anyone unfamiliar with the source material it may be a surprise: Frankenstein is not a horror story. It is a Gothic melodrama, a Greek tragedy, an early science fiction story (that has been mimicked a zillion times, Jurassic Park is a good example). In fact, the subtitle for Shelley's classic is 'Frankenstein, or, A Modern Day Prometheus'. But Hollywood has taken the atmosphere of the novel and insisted that this be a horror story (for a horror story, read Poe, or perhaps Bram Stoker's Dracula, another novel that has been poorly interpreted dozens of times).
Everything is done well, from the excessively beautiful home of the Frankensteins to the smoky, brooding laboratory. The acting is fine throughout, with no missteps, if no brilliant performances, although the lead has several good moments of madness. But overall, the spirit of the book shines through everywhere in this adaptation--it isn't perfect, but it is the best so far to capture the moral ambiguity, the tragic darkness and the psychological horror (secondarily). And the Creature looks just right, with his flowing rags, scarred and moribund presence, and his tortured soul.
My only quibble is the 'science' of the story. Shelley made a point that Frankenstein would not reveal how he accomplished reanimation. Here it is explained that simply shocking a dead body will reverse death. This would have been more effective had much less been explained about how he did it. But that is a minor point. 8/10 from me.
The only saving grace of that whole affair was Deniro's monster--but he still wasn't quite right...ugly, bald, and short. Not what Shelley described. Shelley didn't describe a flat-headed bolt-necked mumbling hulk either, but I have yet to see the Boris Karloff version so I withhold judgment on that film until I see it. This probably puts me in the minority of Frankenstein viewers (people who read the novel before seeing any film adaptations, except maybe 'Abbot and Costello meet Frankenstein').
Which brings me to this Hallmark adaptation. Finally, I feel, Hollywood has gotten it right. Go figure--it's because this version actually stays close to the source material, and it is excellent because of it. The Creature, for one, looks exactly as I pictured him in the novel, probably because...he looks the way he is described! Is this so difficult to accomplish? It must have been, because nowhere has it been done right before. Other commentators have complained that the Creature in this version is too sympathetic, too well spoken, too well read, etc. My comment to this is--read the book! The Creature was not a hulking horror or a twisted goblin, he was tall, gaunt and creepy (like he is here), but also tormented emotionally and highly self-educated, and it is easy to sympathize with him, just as in the novel.
To anyone unfamiliar with the source material it may be a surprise: Frankenstein is not a horror story. It is a Gothic melodrama, a Greek tragedy, an early science fiction story (that has been mimicked a zillion times, Jurassic Park is a good example). In fact, the subtitle for Shelley's classic is 'Frankenstein, or, A Modern Day Prometheus'. But Hollywood has taken the atmosphere of the novel and insisted that this be a horror story (for a horror story, read Poe, or perhaps Bram Stoker's Dracula, another novel that has been poorly interpreted dozens of times).
Everything is done well, from the excessively beautiful home of the Frankensteins to the smoky, brooding laboratory. The acting is fine throughout, with no missteps, if no brilliant performances, although the lead has several good moments of madness. But overall, the spirit of the book shines through everywhere in this adaptation--it isn't perfect, but it is the best so far to capture the moral ambiguity, the tragic darkness and the psychological horror (secondarily). And the Creature looks just right, with his flowing rags, scarred and moribund presence, and his tortured soul.
My only quibble is the 'science' of the story. Shelley made a point that Frankenstein would not reveal how he accomplished reanimation. Here it is explained that simply shocking a dead body will reverse death. This would have been more effective had much less been explained about how he did it. But that is a minor point. 8/10 from me.