In a similar way to how I spoke about Yorgos Lanthimos in my review for Bugonia, Guillermo del Toro has such a unique style that makes his films such a joy to watch, purely from a creative point of view. His highly detailed, Gothic aesthetic never disappoints and makes him perfect for a classic monster movie, like Frankenstein, and that mixed with the fantastic cast he is able draw, actually led to this film placing 2nd on my most anticipated films of the year (behind Superman, if you’re wondering).
This telling of Frankenstein doesn’t stray far from the source material. The film features scientist, Victor Frankenstein (played by Oscar Isaac) on his mission to bring the dead back to life with electricity, when his experiment succeeds, it does fill the whole he thought it would, and the creature is left without a purpose.
As I said, the Frankenstein story suits del Toro and his style perfectly. His previous film, his adaptation of Pinocchio, was a beautiful, fantastic adaptation and he really managed to elevate it beyond any other version of Pinocchio we had seen, and I was certainly optimistic he’d be able to do the same again here. However, upon reflection, it certainly isn’t the same scenario at all, Pinocchio, famously, has had multiple adaptations, but most noticeably a successful Disney version which is most people’s go to when you think of the character and the tale, which is a child friendly version of the story. However, when we look at Frankenstein your mind is clutter with different references of the character in different media, but will likely settle on the original look and story of the 1931 version, which did have a more Gothic feel in the beginning. I do think del Toro’s style perfectly suits this world, and would love to see his versions of all the classic Universal Classic Monsters, like Dracula, The Mummy, etc, but depending on how faithful he is to the source material depends on how big of a swing he takes, and considering he took a big swing with Pinocchio, this certainly feels like less of a swing, and because of that will probably feel less of a push for general audiences to check it out when it hits Netflix.
That being said, I’m extremely glad I managed to catch this on the big screen while it was on it’s limited release, and I certainly feel like the film benefited (as I think most films do), due particularly to the longer run time (it clocks in just over 2 and a half hours), which concerns me as to what the general audience will think, when it’s not a particularly fast moving film, but one that I know cinephiles will love.
Oscar Isaac’s one of my favourite actors working, I think he chooses great projects and has worked with some of the best directors in the industry, and consistently delivers good performances. It’s easy to forget that Victor is the title character, and I tried to go into this film with that in mind, rather than almost pointing him as villain or mad scientist as some adaptations depict. Isaac’s performance is one of his career best and I think he was perfectly suited to the role, I think the only part of it that doesn’t fully work for the character is the sudden turn after he creates his monster, and becomes angry at the lack of fulfillment it gives him, and I’d like to have to have seen more of that turn to the darker side.
Andrew Garfield was actually initially tapped to play the monster, but I believe pulled out due to scheduling conflicts, allowing Jacob Elordi to take the role. Elordi’s had an interesting career to this point, starring as a heartthrob in The Kissing Booth films, to then giving a fantastic and dark performance in Euphoria, as well as another great performance in Saltburn. Those creepier, darker roles certainly seem to bring the best out of Elordi and have elevated him to one of the highest rising stars working, who will have a long career ahead of him, especially as his name is one of the names on Amazon’s shortlist for the next Bond. His role in this film as The Creature, has such a softness and gentleness that works perfectly, and is such a huge part of this character, along with the physicality. It’s not an easy role that many wouldn’t take on, but his commitment to the craft, to fully become The Creature, is very admirable, and gives him an outside shot to sneak into the award season, perhaps unlikely to win, but he certainly will be in the conversation.
The area the film will definetly do well when it gets to the awards, and is in with a strong chance of picking up some Oscars, is the craft areas, the film, as all GDT films do, has some incredible production design, the level of detail that he requires of films, there truly is noone like him in the industry.
Overall, Frankenstein is another fantastic version of this story, told beautifully with Guillermo del Toro’s gothic style and with some strong performances, and strong visuals, from the production design to the cinematography, it certainly deserves to be in the conversation through award season, and if you can, watch in the cinema, you won’t be disappointed, if not check it out this weekend on Netflix.
What did you think of Frankenstein?
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