Was I excited that Netflix gave us a theater release of Guillermo del Toro’s Frankenstein before they dumped it on their streaming platform? YES. Was I annoyed that only independent theaters were showing it which meant the nearest theater playing it near me had a tiny screen and outdated seats from 1983? YES. But I’ll take what I can get even if I would have loved to see this beautifully shot movie on an IMAX screen. But I digress.
Del Toro’s take on Mary Shelley’s source material starts in the arctic north where a ship’s crew are trapped in ice. When they find Victor Frankenstein (Oscar Isaac) injured, he is brought aboard and tells his tale of how his father’s obsessions and the death of his mother led him to a life filled medical experiments and defiance of the medical community. With the help of his brother William and a benefactor by the name of Harlander (Christoph Walz), Victor begins work on his own obsession – bringing a man of his own creation to life using the corpses of other men.
Up until this point, Victor’s enthusiasm for bringing this man to life is his entire personality with the exception of when his mother was alive. When she dies during childbirth, all empathy seems to drain out of him. His of a single mind and the storm he needs to unleash this madness will be his undoing. He and Harlander seem to be the only people that don’t understand this.
Enter Mia Goth as Elizabeth, William’s fiancé. Elizabeth brings with her a colorful beauty that momentarily gives Victor something else to obsess over. She challenges him. Makes him think in ways he hadn’t before. But none of that will stop him from doing what needs to be done when the thunderstorm arrives.
After he creates the creature, Victor has no idea how to be a father to it since he didn’t have a present father figure of his own growing up so he has no patience to teach the creature how to speak or learn. Victor chooses violence when the creature is unable to learn from him, aligning with the theme that violence begets violence. Father to son and now son to creation. It’s Elizabeth who, when meeting the creature, finds a kinship with it. Finds the humanity in it just as she finds the monster in Victor.
Victor tries to destroy his work, almost destroying himself in the process. At this point, back in the arctic, the creature finds the ship and demands to tell his side of the story. The creature’s adventure after he escaped from Victor’s burning wreckage brings him to a cabin where he befriends an old man. He learns to read. To have a conversation. To know kindness and friendship, at least until tragedy not of his making strikes and he is driven from the place. When he realizes he cannot die, that he is stuck in his solitary existence, he goes to Victor to demand Victor make him a mate.
On William and Elizabeth’s wedding day, the creature finds Victor who tries to kill him. Elizabeth stands in Victor’s way and takes the bullet. When Victor realizes what he has done, he chases the creature to the ends of the earth in order to destroy it. This leads them to the ship where Victor begs for forgiveness.
When I find so beautiful about this film is the time it takes in giving its characters meaning. At almost two and a half hours, not once did I wonder how much of the movie was left. No scene is cut short. No line left on the cutting room floor. Each detail laid bare for us find and ponder over. Oscar Isaac and Jacob Elordi as the creature put in such wonderful performances that its hard to look away. Elordi especially gives us both the humanity and the monster. I wasn’t a fan of him as an actor before. I am now.
Like any other del Toro film, the sets, costumes, and makeup effects are exquisite. A feast for the eyes. Accent pieces for the vibrancy of the characters. Elizabeth’s dresses made of earth tones to show her empathy and love for living creatures. Victor’s costumes are always slightly disheveled and sometimes covered in a little blood to show the madness within. The creature’s makeup is meant to show the fractured state of mind of a being who was not meant to exist. Who does not know his place in the world and who learns quickly to distrust humans. Eventually, the creature’s costume becomes that of animal furs and heavy fabrics to add girth to it’s already monstrous size. This gives the people what they already see in him – a monster.
To its core this film, like the book that inspired it, is about loneliness. Its about wanting to love and be loved in return. To have a place, a family, to call home. And it is about what makes us human what gives us our humanity because without it, are we not but monsters?
4.5 out of 5 stars. Damn near a perfect movie.
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Becky Tyler Art and Photography 
Was I excited that Netflix gave us a theater release of Guillermo del Toro’s Frankenstein before they dumped it on their streaming platform? YES. Was I annoyed that only independent theaters were showing it which meant the nearest theater playing it near me had a tiny screen and outdated seats from 1983? YES. But I’ll take what I can get even if I would have loved to see this beautifully shot movie on an IMAX screen. But I digress.
Del Toro’s take on Mary Shelley’s source material starts in the arctic north where a ship’s crew are trapped in ice. When they find Victor Frankenstein (Oscar Isaac) injured, he is brought aboard and tells his tale of how his father’s obsessions and the death of his mother led him to a life filled medical experiments and defiance of the medical community. With the help of his brother William and a benefactor by the name of Harlander (Christoph Walz), Victor begins work on his own obsession – bringing a man of his own creation to life using the corpses of other men.
Up until this point, Victor’s enthusiasm for bringing this man to life is his entire personality with the exception of when his mother was alive. When she dies during childbirth, all empathy seems to drain out of him. His of a single mind and the storm he needs to unleash this madness will be his undoing. He and Harlander seem to be the only people that don’t understand this.
Enter Mia Goth as Elizabeth, William’s fiancé. Elizabeth brings with her a colorful beauty that momentarily gives Victor something else to obsess over. She challenges him. Makes him think in ways he hadn’t before. But none of that will stop him from doing what needs to be done when the thunderstorm arrives.
After he creates the creature, Victor has no idea how to be a father to it since he didn’t have a present father figure of his own growing up so he has no patience to teach the creature how to speak or learn. Victor chooses violence when the creature is unable to learn from him, aligning with the theme that violence begets violence. Father to son and now son to creation. It’s Elizabeth who, when meeting the creature, finds a kinship with it. Finds the humanity in it just as she finds the monster in Victor.
Victor tries to destroy his work, almost destroying himself in the process. At this point, back in the arctic, the creature finds the ship and demands to tell his side of the story. The creature’s adventure after he escaped from Victor’s burning wreckage brings him to a cabin where he befriends an old man. He learns to read. To have a conversation. To know kindness and friendship, at least until tragedy not of his making strikes and he is driven from the place. When he realizes he cannot die, that he is stuck in his solitary existence, he goes to Victor to demand Victor make him a mate.
On William and Elizabeth’s wedding day, the creature finds Victor who tries to kill him. Elizabeth stands in Victor’s way and takes the bullet. When Victor realizes what he has done, he chases the creature to the ends of the earth in order to destroy it. This leads them to the ship where Victor begs for forgiveness.
When I find so beautiful about this film is the time it takes in giving its characters meaning. At almost two and a half hours, not once did I wonder how much of the movie was left. No scene is cut short. No line left on the cutting room floor. Each detail laid bare for us find and ponder over. Oscar Isaac and Jacob Elordi as the creature put in such wonderful performances that its hard to look away. Elordi especially gives us both the humanity and the monster. I wasn’t a fan of him as an actor before. I am now.
Like any other del Toro film, the sets, costumes, and makeup effects are exquisite. A feast for the eyes. Accent pieces for the vibrancy of the characters. Elizabeth’s dresses made of earth tones to show her empathy and love for living creatures. Victor’s costumes are always slightly disheveled and sometimes covered in a little blood to show the madness within. The creature’s makeup is meant to show the fractured state of mind of a being who was not meant to exist. Who does not know his place in the world and who learns quickly to distrust humans. Eventually, the creature’s costume becomes that of animal furs and heavy fabrics to add girth to it’s already monstrous size. This gives the people what they already see in him – a monster.
To its core this film, like the book that inspired it, is about loneliness. Its about wanting to love and be loved in return. To have a place, a family, to call home. And it is about what makes us human what gives us our humanity because without it, are we not but monsters?
4.5 out of 5 stars. Damn near a perfect movie.
Discover more from Becky Tyler Art and Photography
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
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