Word: shelleys
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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...
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...
...overall ineptness of the narration and dialogue in "Frankenstein," and its strangely schizophrenic nature should not keep audiences away. The film is certainly worth seeing, since, like its monster, it is gruesome on the surface, but wants honestly to redeem itself. Mary Shelley's Frankenstein is powerful enough to make even "Mary Shelley's Frankenstein an enjoyable film. And just wait till you see its beating heart...
...years ago, Mary Shelley stayed awake all night writing a story "to curdle the blood, and quicken the beatings of the heart." Her Frankenstein has kept generations of readers up in the nights since, but perhaps no group more than the film makers. Kenneth Branagh's new film, "Mary Shelley's Frankenstein", is yet another rebirth of the monster that has tested the pulse of our fears in versions ranging from animated cartoons to an X-rated Andy Warhol film...