Format: Streaming video from NetFlix on various players.
I am not shy about my love of the work of Guillermo del Toro on this blog. I don’t often go to the theater, but Frankenstein is the first live-action del Toro film in a bit that I haven’t seen on its release. GdT has a reputation of loving his monsters. He’s also someone who, if you go through his films carefully, always makes humans worse than the monsters he shows us (or makes the standard vampires worse than the mutant vampires in Blade II). This is a running theme for him, so Frankenstein was an inevitability.
The running wisdom of the original Mary Shelley novel is that smart people realize that Frankenstein is the doctor, not the monster; wise people realize that Dr. Frankenstein is the monster. Del Toro is going to stay true to this. Victor Frankenstein (Oscar Isaac) is absolutely the villain of this story, while the creature (Jacob Elordi), while monstrous in appearance and sometimes in action, is clearly being depicted as an innocent.
You already know the basics of this story, of course. Scientist Victor Frankenstein seeks to discover the truth of life and death and to play God, making life in his own image. He successfully creates a creature out of the flesh of the dead, and not a lot goes right from that point on. Victor Frankenstein is a sort of ultimate deadbeat dad, creating life and abandoning it. The more cynical of us might suggest that in many ways Victor Frankenstein is a great deal like Yahweh.
This version of Frankenstein, and the number of times this film has been filmed in one way or another is legion, is closer to the original story in a lot of ways, but diverges in some significant ways as well. As seems to often be the case with del Toro’s work, it’s the theme that is important here, and he is looking for something that fits Mary Shelley’s original intent more than it follows her story precisely.
The reality is that the original story is pretty short, shorter than you might expect. The 1931 version of the film with Boris Karloff more or less set the pattern of the story in the minds of most people. Those who have only seen that version of the story are going to be surprised when this starts out on a ship stuck in the ice in the Arctic. The men of the ship are attempting to dig it out of the ice when they discover Victor Frankenstein, who is being pursued by his creation. Acting mainly based on appearance, they protect Victor and shoot at the creatures, who appears to be essentially impervious to most things. The creature is temporarily dealt with, and the captain of the ship (Lars Mikkelsen) sits to hear Victor’s side of the story.
This is the basic tale with some additions and embellishments. One such embellishment is the character of Harlander (Christoph Waltz), who serves as Frankenstein’s financier. Harlander is also the uncle of Elizabeth (Mia Goth), who in this version of the story is betrothed to Victor’s younger brother William (Felix Kammerer) rather than to Victor. As befits del Toro’s style, we’re going to spend a lot time on the creation of the monster. There will be a lot of body horror here—bone saws, snapping off of limbs, squidging eyes into sockets, and the like. And eventually, as Victor reaches the point in his narrative where he decides to get rid of the creature and blows up his tower. At this point, the creature reaches the ship again, breaks into the cabin where Victor is telling his story, and begins to tell his own.
And again, this is what you expect. He wanders, he meets the blind man (David Bradley), he gets chased by people who don’t understand him. He also discovers that he cannot die. Killing him only leads to him resuscitating. And eventually he gets when of where Victor is now and heads there for a confrontation on what happens to be the wedding day of Elizabeth and William.
For purists, the changes here are going to be problematic. Harlander, for instance, works well with the full story. The fact that he eventually reveals why he is so concerned with the success of Victor’s research comes at the right time, and again helps the film work. Marrying Elizabeth to Victor’s brother does nothing to affect the way those characters work. The changes make sense.
It’s the ending where all of this comes up short. Essentially, the last few minutes of the film feel like an unnecessary arc for both Victor and the creature, as if we are supposed to walk out of this feeling the sun on our faces and that everything is right with the world. Should we think that? Is that appropriate for the world we’re living in?
Award season is coming, and I expect Frankenstein will show up a lot. Best Picture certainly, possibly director and actor. Supporting actor has multiple possibilities (and Jacob Elordi feels like he’s right between lead and supporting). Set design for sure. Del Toro always loves to make his sets memorable. The same is true for costuming and make up. But is it going to win anything? I doubt it, although I’d guess set design is its best chance.
Why to watch Frankenstein: You know the del Toro, it’s going to be sumptuous.
Why not to watch: It feels like he’s punted the ending.
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