Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, November 5, 1994 TAG: 9411180055
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: C-12 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: MIKE MAYO CORRESPONDENT
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
It's energetic to a fault, handsomely produced, often astonishing in a visual sense and poorly written. A stilted, creaky script by Steph Lady and Frank Darabont lies at the heart of the film's problems. Lady is a novice, and Darabont's credits include the remake of ``The Blob'' and ``The Fly II.''
Their version of the famous novel begins in the Arctic where Victor Frankenstein (director Kenneth Branagh) is wandering around on the ice. Exhausted and nearly dead, he is found by an explorer (Aidan Quinn) and proceeds to tell the story of his life. He begins, unfortunately, with his childhood.
At a very young age, Victor develops a strong love for his mother (Cherie Lunghi) and his adopted sister Elizabeth (Helena Bonham Carter). When he leaves his home in Geneva to go to the university at Ingolstadt, Victor decides to study life itself. Despite his friendship with the free-spirited Henry Clerval (Tom Hulce), Victor is drawn to the dark, forbidden theories of Professor Waldman (John Cleese, who's excellent in a serious role).
That, of course, leads him to his own experiments and the laboratory scenes - the centerpiece of any ``Frankenstein'' film. These are real lulus involving assorted fluids, industrial-strength acupuncture and a Rube Goldberg contraption that looks like an old-fashioned copper bathtub. The result is the Creature (Robert De Niro), hideously scarred, innocent, frightened and superhumanly strong.
Most of the medical and surgical aspects are suggested, not shown, though they're still sufficiently revolting. The more overt violence is much stronger and more disturbing. One key scene toward the end is a real stomach-churner. It's appropriate to the material but still shocking. The rest of the film is similarly unbalanced.
Some of the Geneva scenes, for example, are staged on huge, impressive but virtually empty sets. Those may serve some profound symbolic purpose but they leave the viewer wondering where all the furniture is. In the middle section, where several important events take place, the pace is so hurried that the plot makes virtually no sense.
There's no continuity to the acting. On one end, Cleese is restrained, and De Niro, unrecognizable under heavy make-up, is effective, believable and even poignant. At the other end of the dramatic scale, Branagh and Helena Bonham Carter overact outrageously in their bodice-ripping romance. And in the lab scenes, he dashes about shirtless under flattering burnished light.
As director, Branagh attempts to wrestle the script into submission with self-conscious tricks and a hyperactive swooping, circling camera.
In ``Bram Stoker's Dracula,'' director Francis Ford Coppola (who co-produced this film), used an equally imaginative technique to create an atmosphere of baroque horror. Branagh seems to be aiming for something more Gothic, but he's neither as skilled nor as experienced a filmmaker.
Despite this film's fealty to the original, James Whale's ``Frankenstein'' and ``The Bride of Frankenstein'' remain the definitive screen versions of the story.
Mary Shelley's Frankenstein
** 1/2
A TriStar release playing at the Salem Valley 8 and Valley View Mall 6. 128 min. Rated R for graphic violence, sexual content.
by CNB