Word: frankenstein
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...monster's birth scene in "Mary Shelley's Frankenstein" is a microcosm of the film's strengths and weaknesses. The creature and his creator wrestle in a mesmerizing but awkward dance through the laboratory, slick with the creature's birth fluid. Branagh's interpretation of the Frankenstein story is thematically sound and visually arresting, though often gruesome. Yet its director/star/co-producer is never able to wrestle the film, its camera or script into a graceful waltz...
Mary Shelley's story, recreated in its late 18th century splendor, is wellknown. A young medical student succeeds in bringing to life a body he has created from a collection of corpses. This new Adam, hungry for guidance from his creator, faces only Frankenstein's revulsion, and seeks revenge on his "father's" loved ones. Bereft of everything except a desire to destory his terrible creation, the scientist chases the monster over the earth to their common doom...
Branagh apparently spent more time pumping iron and tousseling his locks for the film than planning its direction. The film is almost destroyed by poor editing. Victor Frankenstein's comically bad dialogue with his monster and his fiancee is drawn out painfully. We can't bear to listen to gems like the monster's vow, "Frankenstein, I will have my revenge!" or Frankenstein's lament, "What have I done?" Yet the opening sequences, where his strange passion for dark science and his devotion to his family should be established, leave us with the dizzying sensation that we are watching...
Helena Bonham Carter's role as Frankenstein's fiancee Elizabeth has been rewritten from Shelley's domestic angel into a well-dressed bundle of Gothic spitfire. Her courage in facing the horror of Frankenstein's unnatural creations is far greater than his own self-absorbed cowardice...
...Frankenstein evokes no terror, only repulsion...