With a commitment to his telling of the story and infectious enthusiasm, Frankenstein is another home run for del Toro.
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Guilermo del Toro making a Frankenstein movie is one of the least surprising things to happen in the movie world. Not only has del Toro demonstrated a strong affection for monsters who aren't monsters throughout his entire film career, he also has a strong affection for gothic inspired costume design and architecture. It was only a matter of time before this happened. However, Frankenstein hasn't really popped on screen since its original incarnations in the 1930s which has included a short king mashup of James McAvoy and Daniel Radcliffe called Victor Frankenstein (a movie unfortunately so forgettable I forgot it happened) or Robert DeNiro playing the creature for Kenneth Branagh in the nineties. Hell the most accessible adaptations have been movies inspired by the original story like last year's Lisa Frankenstein and Tim Burton's animated updated on his own movie Frankenweenie. But if you know del Toro, you know he's not going to half ass anything and Frankenstein is no exception.
The Setup
Based on Mary Shelley's seminal science fiction novel, the movie follows finds scientist turned pariah and madman Victor Frankenstein being discovered in the Arctic by a Danish naval vessel and hotly pursued by a powerfully strong being he created. Hoping to explain before he succumbs to terrible injuries, the doctor tells his tale of what led him to create the creature.
God I love del Toro as a filmmaker. While there are plenty of filmmakers with equally impressive filmography's that I love, del Toro's enthusiasm for the stories he's telling is so obvious and so extreme that it becomes infectious. He seems to approach movies like this like a teenager finally getting a chance to make his fanfiction version of one of his favorite stories and based on everything I've seen in the behind the scenes features...this is dead on.
One of the most obvious examples? Production design.
God-Tier Production Design, Yet Again
One of the easiest reasons to love del Toro as a filmmaker is that he and the people he works with, put in the time and effort. Every set is immaculately constructed to suit the purpose of the scenes, every costume is period appropriate and frequently thematically loaded, and we're still well within the fun steampunk gothic vibe that del Toro loves so much when it comes to visuals.
Which sadly stands out more than it should in a modern movie-making landscape when it feels like so much of everything occurs on soundstages vs. physical locations or sets. For instance, one of the shots used in the previews has been Victor giving a demonstration in the round to a bunch of scholars. All specifically lit and designed to make Victor the focal point with the light literally highlighting him and his experiment. Used for one scene perfectly and never seen again. Absolutely worth it.
It honestly harkens back to the era of late 90s and early 2000s blockbusters where the emphasis was on physical when possible and then CGI only as an enhancement or when there's no other options. And it always looks better. Doesn't hurt that the whole cast is going for broke either.
Phenomenal Casting
A lot of hey is already being made about Jacob Elordi's performance as the creature and rightly so. Anyone who sits in a makeup chair for that long on a daily basis and still delivers a moving performance is alright in my book, as much as I am amused by the idea of the conventionally attractive Elordi being cast as a "monster." But his dimensions combined with his performance that shifts between fear and fury is really solid.
But the smartest casting, at least in my mind, is Oscar Isaac as Victor. One of the reasons I love Isaac is that he's effortlessly charismatic but also unafraid of offbeat or giant swings, regardless of the project. Which is something Victor needs, especially in this adaptation. He needs to drift between charming, to wild and obsessive and back again, all while maintaining a semblance of sympathy.
Basically you need a guy who will eat up a chance to shock a guy in a Jesus pose with it being wet everywhere and Isaac is definitely one of those dudes.
Another reason is that everyone is more or less reacting to Victor, be it his enthusiasm or his cruelty so you need a solid emotional anchor. It means that Christoph Waltz can come in being...well a Christoph Waltz type as Victor's benefactor and Mia Goth can play our judgmental version of Elizabeth by playing everything quieter in contrast to Victor's mania. And personally, I dig the changes.
Strong Changes to Reinforce the Themes
Frankenstein is a natural progression for del Toro for an obvious reason. He's made an awful lot of stories about created monsters who are not really monsters lashing out at their creators or demonstrating more humanity than the humans who encounter them.
So give him the original sci-fi story about man's hubris in playing god, and one of the original misunderstood monsters and you're right in his wheelhouse.
What I like, is how del Toro shifts a few story aspects to reinforce a different theme: family.
The changes del Toro makes to the familiar story all have one goal in mind. Reinforce the idea that Frankenstein is a bad dad, who has never resolved his family traumas. He's never come to grips with his mother's passing (and blames his overbearing father for it), believes his brother was chosen for a good life because of his nicer demeanor. Hence why Elizabeth is engaged to his brother vs. Victor himself.
But what the story reinforces is that not only is Victor not the victim he clearly claims to be, he's also just as bad, if not a worse dad than his own father. Aka this is exactly the kind of guy that will talk about how alone he is to his future sister-in-law while there's a creature that only knows his name in desperate need of guidance...because he's an ultra-powerful possible immortal that Victor himself created.
This also flips a lot more sympathy to "the Creature," who gets a more robust version of a healthy human connection in del Toro's telling before it's stolen from him. Are there any dings? Only one really.
Some Sharp Shifts in Tone
Tonally Frankentein is in del Toro's Crimson Peak mode which is to say, period melodrama. Everyone is acting big on a big set while dealing with big emotions as big as possible. Which makes sense for the material and especially if we're shocking corpses back to life.
Where it doesn't always work is when the movie takes drastic shifts into blockbuster R-rated action mode and del Toro indulges in what I'll lovingly call "deleted Blade 2 kills" where the creature shows of his incredible strength.
Basically some of the action beats are so silly that it undercuts the intended emotion of the scene via scale. So instead of being a fight it feels like a video game level with combo finishers.
But that's a minor complaint in what is otherwise a gleefully told adaptation.
The Verdict: Another Beautifully Realized del Toro Movie
With a commitment to his telling of the story and infectious enthusiasm, Frankenstein is another home run for del Toro. 8/10
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