Frankenstein

Grade: B-

When you hear “Frankenstein,” it’s easy to picture a green stocky guy, with a bolt in his head, not bending his knees as he slowly walks with his arms out. Frankenstein isn’t even the creature’s name. It’s the name of his creator. For the most part, it was a pleasure to get a refresher on the story and the misconceptions/misrememberences I was guilty of having. Guillermo del Toro puts his signature stamp on this material and does the story proud.

It begins with a prelude, set in 1857. A Royal Danish Navy ship gets stuck in the ice, en route to the North Pole. The captain and his men see an explosion in the distance, and find a mortally wounded man: Victor Frankenstein. A mysterious superhuman creature lurks about, terrorizing the crew and looking for Victor. They sink him in the ice, thinking they’ve killed him. They bring Victor on board, and most of the movie is a flashback, as he recounts his story for the captain – and later, the creature returns to share his side of the story.

We first see it from the perspective of Victor. Del Toro chooses to include his upbringing as part of the account. We learn how Victor is shaped by his mother’s passing and his father’s abuse. He becomes a surgeon, obsessed with the idea of making a human of his own, using parts from people who will no longer be needing them, with a little help from electricity. This is the slowest-moving section of the film. 45 minutes in, I took an intermission to deal with real life stuff, and had to psych myself up to continue. I’m glad I chose to press on, because there was better material in store, including when we hear from the so-called monster.

Even when we are taken through the well-known segments of the story (such as the old blind man, and what happens there), the movie has a meaning and gravitas it didn’t before. As the creature, Jacob Elordi gives us a performance that allows his acting to shine through. He’s not buried under so much makeup and prosthetics that it renders him unrecognizable; you can tell that it’s Elordi. If your vision of a Frankenstein monster is a stumbling, muttering Herman Munster type, you might be taken aback by this “sexy Frankenstein,” as it’s been described – but being able to see Elordi’s facial expressions serves the story’s intent. After the boring, mechanical exposition, the most life the movie has is when we hear from Elordi as the creature. He is allowed to breathe, as is the book’s beautiful language. Del Toro has a fixation with grisly, gory imagery – even for a Frankenstein movie. I wouldn’t watch this while eating.

Oscar Isaac is a strong, appropriately frantic/harried Victor Frankenstein. Christoph Waltz essentially played the same sarcastic character in both of his Oscar winning performances in Tarantino films, but here he brings something different to the table as Harlander, the wealthy arms dealer who funds Frankenstein’s research and experiments. As Victor’s prospective sister-in-law, it’s awesome to see Mia Goth in a project like this. She showed boundless commitment and courage in lesser-seen films like X, Pearl, Infinity Pool, and MaXXXine – so I’m glad she is rising in rank.

Amazing moments emerge in the midst of some boring ones, but when it cooks, it really cooks. There’s a bittersweetness to the ending, but the landing is stuck, and the arc – such as it can be – is completed. Del Toro can tell a great story about a misunderstood creature. We’ve known that for years.

Grade: B-