Starring: Kenneth Branagh, Helen Bonham Carter, Robert DeNiro
Now playing at: Hoyts Cinema Complexes throughout the city
Rating: **
A FIERCE and intense film, Frankenstein somehow manages to sustain an incredibly high level of energy without actually engaging the viewer at any given time. This may be due to Branagh's mannered directorial style, which fared so well with Henry V but failed to crack the barrier between words and action in his thriller, Dead Again, which was also an interesting but unengaging effort. With Frankenstein, Branagh again plays the lead, portraying the young Victor Von Frankenstein as a man possessed by the idea of cheating death after he loses his mother during the birth of Victor's brother.
The tale begins, as it does in Shelley's novel, with an encounter between an ice-bound schooner heading for the arctic and a near-dead Frankenstein who appears out of a northerly blizzard to tell his tale to Captain Walton (Aidan Quinn). The entire tragic tale of the young scientist and his creation then unfolds in an extended flashback, with equal attention given to historical detail and Frankenstein's relationships with friends, family, and his beloved Elizabeth (Helen Bonham Carter) - the adopted sister who is to be his wife.
He is a loving man and a good friend, but when his scientific interest turns to obsession, the consequences literally take on a life of their own in the form of The Conster (Robert DeNiro), a sewn-together abomination with the brain of Frankenstein's dead mentor.
Branagh plays his part with a histrionic intensity that is difficult to sympathise with and, unfortunately, he sets the pace for the entire cast. The result is a stilted division of horror and humanity that never melds together, fails to grip and certainly will not force anyone to leave the lights on at night after leaving the cinema.
Not even DeNiro can save this film from tipping hopelessly into histrionics; his shambling, suffering character quickly becomes a vengeful one, hunting down his creator and wreaking havoc on the lives of Frankenstein's loved ones. DeNiro gives The Creature neither pathos nor horror-inspiring evil; he seems simply a bad guy in particularly elaborate makeup whose time and space-defying rovings for revenge are simply not possible, which only adds another element of falsehood to the film.
The supporting cast is very solid - Bonham Carter and Tom Hulce in particular - but Frankenstein's overall hysterical feel trammels what would otherwise be a great piece of ensemble acting.