Guillermo del Toro’s version of Frankenstein plays in local theaters for two weeks before coming to Netflix, and there’s a great deal to like about it. For one thing, it looks amazing, and while you could say that about all of Del Toro’s films, this is more resplendent than anything of his since 2015’s Crimson Peak.
For another thing, it includes the second part of Mary Shelley’s novel, in which the monster tells his side of the story. This part, which is absent from all other adaptations of Frankenstein that I’m aware of, has a number of good effects. For one thing, it makes sense out of the framing story about a Norwegian sea captain (Lars Mikkelsen) who’s hellbent on reaching the North Pole before he runs across both Victor Frankenstein (Oscar Isaac) and the creature (Jacob Elordi) on the polar ice caps.
Elordi is the very tall British actor who has done great as an atrocious human being on TV’s Euphoria, but he has never popped on the big screen like this before, despite his roles in Saltburn and On Swift Horses. Here he comes alive as a creature feeling loneliness and pain for the first time in his existence and who moves delicately because he knows how easily he can hurt the people around him.
Alongside him, David Bradley does tremendously as the blind old man who teaches the creature how to be human, while Christoph Waltz injects a welcome note of sleaze as a German arms dealer who bankrolls Victor because he’s dying and wants Frankenstein to find a cure for death.
As for the visuals, cinematographer Dan Laustsen and production designer Tamara Deverell bring a Hammer Studios-like lushness to the settings, with Victor’s beloved Elizabeth (Mia Goth) frequently wearing shades of blue and green against backgrounds of red and orange. Speaking of which, the costumes do more than pull their weight, too, with Victor frequently wearing a flamboyant wide-brimmed hat reminiscent of Goethe in Tischbein’s famous painting, which befits a character who thinks of himself as a great genius.
For all this, why am I sitting in my theater seat unmoved? I will confess to experiencing flashbacks to Mel Brooks’ Young Frankenstein, Bill Condon’s Gods and Monsters, Lucky McKee’s May, and other riffs on the story while I was watching this, but I don’t think I’m burned out on the story. Is it because Del Toro includes too much of Mary Shelley’s prose as voiceover narration when it isn’t needed?
Or maybe it’s just that, for all the energy and theatrical flair that Isaac brings to Frankenstein, the title character doesn’t pop the way Del Toro’s greatest villains do. (To wit: Sergi López’ fascist ideologue in Pan’s Labyrinth, Jessica Chastain’s incestuous serial killer in Crimson Peak, and Michael Shannon’s racist technocrat in The Shape of Water.) The twisted relationship between Victor and his creation should be a horrifying spiral of mutual destruction, and that feeling doesn’t come across here.
Despite that, I find Frankenstein a more rewarding experience than last year’s Nosferatu, and its visuals and scope are well worth taking in on the big screen. You should catch it during its theatrical run, which doesn’t figure to last long for reasons that have little to do with its cinematic merits. Netflix has seemingly been out to kill off the theatrical experience of movies with the goal of putting everything in your TV. Whatever you might think of that aim, it appears to be preventing the streaming service from attaining its other goal of winning a Best Picture Oscar. A long run on a lot of screens might very well have boosted the awards chances of previous Netflix originals like Roma, The Irishman, or Marriage Story, and the same goes for this film. (Although, if Netflix really wants to win the Best Picture Oscar this year, they need to push all their chips onto KPop Demon Hunters. That movie’s back in theaters next week, by the way.) If only Netflix valued the experience of going to the multiplexes, they could immensely benefit us theatergoers as well as themselves. Maybe if a lot of people turn up at Frankenstein, it’ll change some minds over there.
Frankenstein
Starring Oscar Isaac and Jacob Elordi. Written and directed by Guillermo Del Toro, based on Mary Shelley’s novel. Rated R.
