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All Movie Info
Starring:
Kenneth Branagh, Robert De Niro, Helena Bonham Carter, Tom Hulce, Aidan Quinn, John Cleese, Ian Holm, Richard Briers, Robert Hardy, Cherie Lunghi, Celia Imrie, Trevyn McDowell
Directed By:
Kenneth Branagh
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Mary Shelley's Frankenstein (1994)
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Movie Review by Jarrod
October 28th, 2007
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'Mary Shelley's Frankenstein' is a literate, absorbing adaptation of the famous novel, which has been a staple of the Hollywood horror genre since the 1930s, when Boris Karloff gave us a lumbering behemoth, who communicated with grunts instead of actual speech. Robert De Niro (with the help of Oscar-nominated makeup effects) gives us a monster that actually can speak, a monster that demonstrates intelligence, expresses emotion, a monster far more humanized than any other. His creator, Victor Frankenstein (Branagh), is consumed by vanity and arrogance. He is a scientist, who wants to play God, and he decides to stitch body parts together and make a living organism, which he then rejects, but the creature simply won't be forgotten. De Niro presents the creature as a sad and sympathetic character, driven by a love for Frankenstein, but also a desire to be accepted by him and also by the rest of humanity.
The creature's rage brings tragedy to Victor's life, including the murder of his fiancée, Elizabeth (Helena Bonham Carter), whom Victor seeks to revive, while the creature hopes to claim her as his own. The uniqueness of the Creature in this version of the story makes it more interesting, he is aware that he looks horrendous, and terrifies all who lay eyes on him, and he understands how he was made, by reading Victor's journals, this Creature appears very Shakespearean, and maybe that was the effect Branagh was going for.
De Niro is captivating, and so is Branagh, whose Victor is not without his regrets, and comes to terms with what he has done. Carter is illuminating as the vibrant, beautiful Elizabeth. And the film looks very good, with Victorian England recreated well. The prologue and epilogue, which are both set in the Arctic, are a bit tedious, and what occurs in between them is more substantive, even though Branagh cannot resist the urge to dip into melodrama, and he might overdo it, but I still enjoyed the movie, primarily because of De Niro.
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