Where the movie ultimately fails is its portrayal of Viktor Frankenstein.
Mary Shelley’s 1818 novel, “Frankenstein; or The Modern Prometheus” has been directly or indirectly referenced many times in motion pictures. The first such adaptation was a 14-minute short film made in 1910 by Edison Studios. Since then, there have been at least 40 filmed versions of the story of a man created solely from the parts of other men. And, yet, as often as the tale has been told, there are still plenty of people who think “Frankenstein” is the name of the creature and not the man who created him. 1994’s Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein is one of the more ambitious attempts to bring the story to the screen.
The film opens near the North Pole as the crew of a sailing ship find themselves stranded on a barren ice sheet. However, they’re not alone. Viktor Frankenstein (Kenneth Branagh) emerges from the fog and tells them that they’re in danger. The ship’s captain (Aidan Quinn) asks Frankenstein to explain. Frankenstein chronicles what is essentially his life story.
Due to the loss of his beloved mother as she gave birth to his younger brother, Frankenstein’s life is fueled by a quest to beat death. He attends medical school and challenges the accepted norms of science. Soon, he meets Professor Waldman (John Cleese) who himself had conducted experiments involving the reanimation of the dead. Waldman warns Frankenstein that he almost succeeded but he refused to go any further. When Waldman is murdered, Frankenstein resumes his experiments. For his creation, he uses the body of the man executed for Waldman’s murder but swaps the killer’s brain with Waldman’s.
Frankenstein succeeds in reanimating the body but immediately regrets his decision. He unsuccessfully tries to kill the creature (Robert De Niro) but fails. The creature steals Frankenstein’s coat and escapes into the woods. In the coat’s pocket, the creature finds Frankenstein’s journal. As he hides outside of town, he begins to read the journal and eventually comes to understand that he is viewed as an abomination even by the man who created him. The creature vows revenge against his creator. When Frankenstein travels back to his home to marry his one true love, his adopted sister, Elizabeth (Helena Bonham Carter), the creature is in pursuit.
Directed by Kenneth Branagh from a screenplay by Steph Lady and Frank Darabont (The Shawshank Redemption), the film gets the Gothic atmosphere right. Superficially, the film looks like a haughty costume drama. However, Branagh tears away most of what mainstream audiences would find boring and replaces it with a bombastic directness. Key scenes are filled with expository dialogue as if Branagh didn’t trust the viewer to understand what was happening. Only the scenes featuring the creature as he re-learns to speak, read, and write in the woods retain any semblance of subtlety.
Robert De Niro’s performance as the creature is the absolute highlight of the film. It was a pleasure to see him play such an unusual and challenging role in contrast to some of his more recent work. The movie as a whole is successful in creating a sense of sympathy for the creature. Where the movie ultimately fails is its portrayal of Viktor Frankenstein. He is the true villain but his quest to defeat death isn’t framed as maniacal. He comes off as merely misguided and obsessive.
One would hope that a movie that references the author’s name in the title would be the definitive filmed version of the classic novel. Unfortunately, this attempt misses the mark everywhere except for the creature’s pathos. And, sadly, it doesn’t have much in the way of scares either. A disappointment.
2.5 out of 5.0 stars
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