A real treat of a movie. A classic story told by a master filmmaker at the height of his powers. Not perfect but nonetheless a superior film, and one where every corner of every frame is saturated in its makers love for the story, for film andโฆ for life itself! (cue thunder and lightning)
Elordi is wonderful, doing what decades of previous films have not: giving an interpretation of Frankensteinโs creature that, both visually and performatively, equals Karloffs. Just as Gary Oldman reinvented an archetype in Dracula, Elordi does in Frankenstein.
Oscar Isaac is a tad less effective, essentially playing Gene Wilder In young Frankenstein with a nastier edge and none of the laughs
Mia Goth steals every scene sheโs in and we end the movie wishing it had more of her and Elordi.
Other positives: the world building is ravishing. Sets, scenery and costumesโฆ oh my goodness the costumes he puts Mia Goth inโฆ gowns of turquoise, acid green and malachite in fabrics that shimmer like a butterflyโs wings. They are incredible
Structurally the film is sturdily designed as not one, but two extended flashbacks, bookended by a gripping sequence in an icebound ship in the arctic waste
The storytelling is self assured and the tempo confident, unfortunately itโs a bit of a slog and then at the end you feel del toro rushing through important moments. Relationships and plots are underdeveloped and wrapped up too quickly.
We donโt get villagers with pitchforks or a malevolent housekeeper or a hissing bride, certain iconic plot points seem to have been jettisoned in favor of an extended sequence in a remote forest cottage that helps reinforce the monsters humanity but slows momentum considerably.
The ending is disappointingly tidy and punches are pulled in order to provide a contemporary version of closure and redemption that either Del toro or Netflix thinks the audience needs.
Itโs too bad because what leads up to it is lovely. Del toro has given us misunderstood monsters before but never articulated the double bind of human existence as lyrically here, and for the most part his tendencies to get overly sentimental are reigned in.
All told itโs a capital M movie, one that demands to be seen in a theater, and one that like Dracula, I expect to find a devoted following, both for its lavish visuals and the achingly empathetic and physically masterful performance at the center of it