Word: whaled
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What's sadly ironic about this is that Gods and Monsters deals with the final days of James Whale. Whale was the director of Frankenstein and The Bride of Frankenstein, films that were immensely popular in their day and can now be found on film school syllabi. Moreover, as Gods and Monsters illustrates in a couple of touching scenes, they can still be enjoyed today: These were and are, above all else, movies...
...gets the sense that James Whale may have given Gods and Monsters an unfavorable review. Granted, the acting is stellar: Ian McKellen turns yet another masterful performance as the aging filmmaker, Brendan Fraser gives a surprisingly adept take on Clayton Boone, the naive young love interest of the homosexual Whale. Lynn Redgrave, heir to her family's tradition of great acting, takes on the role of Hanna, the staid housekeeper who mediates between Whale and Boone with notable sensitivity, making sympathetic a character who could have been made merely boring in less talented hands. The screenplay too, authored by director...
...writing here, however, belies the failing of Gods and Monsters: It could have just as well been produced as a play. The difference between action movies and independent films seems to be that the one has lots of explosions, and the other has lots of conversations. Lots of them. Whale talking to Boone. Boone talking to Whale. Whale talking to Hanna about Boone. Boone talking to his buddies about Whale. Whale talking to Boone about his buddies talking to Boone about Whale. Enough. This is not to say that what Gods and Monsters needs is less talking and more explosions...
...years later, the Crimson (1-3-0, 0-3-0 ECAC) has already dropped three in as many ECAC games and will return to the Yale Whale this Saturday desperately needing what even its great title team could not secure...
...brusque German one, but what makes him a great shot for film eminence is how suavely he listens. Listens with his eyes, attentive to nuances of lust or fear that may not even be there. Reacts with a prim wryness that hints at the Nazi's superiority, at Whale's indulgence. These lovely scenes give the audience a chance to study McKellen in wary repose. It's a face worth studying. A movie face, as Hollywood should soon understand...