Frankenstein is the movie that Guillermo Del Toro was born to make. Anyone familiar with his style and body of work will know this instinctively. The idea of the visionary director taking a crack at the ultimate tragic monster story is mouth watering. Guillermo is well aware of this himself and so was apparently hesitant to pull the trigger on his dream project. Fortunately for us, he took the risk. Del Toro provides his own screenplay adaptation of Mary Shelly’s classic. Dan Laustsen provides cinematography and Alexandre Desplat provides the score. Oscar Isaac plays Frankenstein and Jacob Elordi his monster. The supporting cast features a lot of great talent, including Mia Goth, Charles Dance, Christoph Waltz, David Bradley, Felix Kammerer and Lars Mikkelsen.
The passion of Monsters
The movie lands in two key ways: The fantastic visuals and how engaging the two primary characters are (Frankenstein and his monster). That’s not to say there aren’t issues, but these are somewhat minor. Specifically the length and what the film does with that time. By far the best part of the film is “The Monster’s story” which is the final hour of the film. I wouldn’t change a thing in this section. But the first hour and a half is where the movie drags a little and where the focus could have been better. We see a Young Victor’s upbringing and arrangement with arms dealer Henrich that funds his research. While none of it is without purpose or merit, I can’t help but feel we didn’t need quite as much of it.
On the other hand, I could do with a bit more of Mia Goth’s Elizabeth. She is a truly pivotal character. Despite being engaged to Victor’s brother, both he and his monster fall in love with her. Yet, she didn’t feel as real as either of them. The result is everyone’s obsession with her feels artificial. I would have preferred less time spent on Frankenstein’s benefactor and father and more on Elizabeth. This could probably have been achieved just by editing out some of the clutter. That said it’s not a deal breaker. Cutting screen time from actors of Charles Dance and Christoph Waltz caliber, is admittedly a tough ask!
The True Visionary
It comes as no surprise that Del Toro provides has provided Frankentein with stunning and beautifully Gothic visuals. This is his raison d’être. This is the one thing you can pretty solidly rely on from the director and the reason he is referred to as a “Visionary”. The cinematography, the sets, the costumes and the Monster’s design itself are all works of art. There are references to the Universal classics but at the same time the style is very much Del Toro. Full of his favored blacks and reds, with ultra wide angle lenses and every shot full of Gothic majesty. It is at this point exactly what you expect from a Del Toro movie. For many it is the reason they watch them. That said, where the director was forced to use CGI here, the visuals suffer a little. The positives outweigh the negatives, but on occasions things feel a little too unreal.
For me, the story is often the weaker part of a Del Toro movie, but here he makes two key decisions that bring everything together. One is the focus on humanizing the Monster (Not a new take, but done to very well). The second is updating the setting by about 50 years. That is something Mary Shelly didn’t have the option of. She wrote the novel in 1818 and set it around the 1790’s. The classic Universal 1930’s adaptation was set around the turn of the 20th century. Del Toro meanwhile sets his film in the 1850’s during the Crimean War, a war that was still decades in the future when the novel was written. Del Toro picked the perfect setting. A feat he also achieved in Pinocchio by moving the setting about the same amount (50 years) setting it during the rise of Mussolini.
Conclusion
Overall, this is an excellent movie. Not perfect, but very few films are. It is probably Del Toro’s best work. The visuals are stunning and the character story is compelling. Frankenstein always was a compelling story, but not every version really drives home the emotion of the story. This does and in my view it is the best version of the tale. Previously I’d have given that to Bride of Frankenstein, which is effectively the “Monster’s Story” part of this film. The two parts of this movie do actually play out largely like watching the original two Universal movies. I can’t help but feel that is deliberate. I highly recommend this movie, it just about gets a super rare 8/10 from me.
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