Nearly two decades in the making, Guillermo del Toro’s self-proclaimed dream project, “Frankenstein,” is finally here. Del Toro’s signature style and passion are visible in every frame, with sets that exude Gothic grandeur and create a visually stunning and deeply sincere piece. A reimagining of Mary Shelley’s 1818 novel, the film opens on a Danish ship trapped in the Arctic, which comes upon and rescues a nearly dead Baron Victor Frankenstein (Oscar Isaac). The rescue, however, is futile as the ship’s crew and audience immediately learn that Victor is being hunted by a Creature (Jacob Elordi) with superhuman strength.
From here, the movie shifts into Victor’s backstory. He offers insight into his abusive relationship with his father and the origin of his obsession with death: the untimely passing of his mother. Eventually, we watch Victor prove to the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh that he has developed a way to stimulate the reanimation of a corpse through an electrical current, which results in his expulsion from society. The first hour of the film is focused entirely on Victor and demonstrates how the combination of his grief and ego motivated him to create the Creature. Personally, I did not expect nearly this much time to be spent on Victor, especially the great emphasis on his childhood. However, del Toro’s goals here seem to be to give the viewer an understanding of Victor’s mindset and to provide a nuanced recreation of Shelley’s novel, both of which he succeeds in.
The turning point, of course, is the Creature’s creation. With financial support from Henrich Harlander (Christoph Waltz), Victor moves into an abandoned tower and builds his laboratory, one of del Toro’s best practical sets. The dark stone walls and large green coils, which turn red when they pulse with electricity, add up to top-shelf production design. Victor works to assemble the Creature under pressure from Harlander, sourcing pieces for his monster anywhere he can, from criminals to soldiers’ corpses strewn across a battlefield.
Predictably, the sequence where the Creature is given life is one of the best in the film, with the score swelling as lightning strikes the laboratory tower. This is also where the movie finds its emotional heart; Jacob Elordi offers a childlike, fragile and quiet performance, leaving Victor to help raise a Creature that is really more lost than monstrous. We watch Victor struggle with his newfound role as a father before he deserts the Creature entirely, burning down his tower in the process.
Later, back in the Arctic, the Creature walks aboard the ship, his naive quietness now a deliberate and intimidating silence. This transformation is incredibly successful, in large part because Elordi plays the Creature with commitment and conviction, showing us how the being has changed with both time and cruelty. Unfortunately, this brief intermission in the Arctic, which pulls us into the Creature’s tale, feels more like an obligation to Shelley’s story than a necessary aspect for the film, and it dulls the immediacy that I felt with Victor’s story.
Once we return to the main story, we start to see through the Creature’s eyes. Elordi encounters the world for the first time, learning about both the beauty of the forest and the cruelty of hunters. Eventually, the Creature settles down in a cottage and finds friendship with an old blind man (David Bradley). Their interactions, in which the man teaches the Creature to speak and to read, make up a stretch of heartwarming moments that establish the Creature’s capacity to feel. When the movie returns to the Arctic for its finale, the Creature’s emotional storyline finally reaches its peak. As Victor dies, he confesses his regrets to the Creature, who forgives him before pushing the ship free from the ice.
The supporting cast all play their parts quite well, even if none get much room to breathe. Mia Goth actually plays two characters: Elizabeth Harlander, Victor’s sister-in-law, for whom he also has feelings, and Claire Frankenstein, Victor’s late mother. Goth’s dual roles are meant to be symbolic of Victor’s chaotic past, but they never truly resonated with me. It’s evident that del Toro wants us to see how Victor loves both of these women in the same way, but Goth is nearly unrecognizable as Claire due to heavy makeup. On the whole, Goth is able to carry the film’s smaller emotional beats alongside Isaac and Waltz, who give the slick performance that we’ve come to expect. Unfortunately, del Toro’s script often doesn’t trust its actors, which results in some clunky dialogue.
Alexandre Desplat’s score complements the mood perfectly. Between the swelling score and Dan Lautsen’s cinematography, alongside production and costume design that are likely to see Academy recognition, “Frankenstein” is a technical monster. Personally, I can see “Frankenstein” contending for Oscar wins in Makeup and Hairstyling, Production Design and Costume Design, with likely nominations in Cinematography and even Supporting Actor for Elordi.
“Frankenstein” is an easy film to admire — it’s grand in scale and clearly built with care, even if occasionally trying too hard for profundity. Del Toro may not have made a career-best masterpiece, but he’s definitely gotten close.
