Review of Gods and Monsters (1998) by Jonathan B — 24 Oct 2010

Rewatched this super movie last night after quite a while and had actually forgotten how brilliant it is. Ian McKellen gives one of his finest screen performances as James Whale, director of the first Frankenstein movies and other classic pictures while Brendan Fraser shows what a pity it is his career has turned to rubbishy, formulaic family comedies as here, he shows genuine charm and understatement as the gardener who becomes an unlikely friend to the old man. I'm not certain of the true accuracy of the account of Whale's final days here but this is a totally believable portrayal of a mutual friendship and admiration tinged with tragedy and lightened with real humour. Lynn Redgrave gives a lovely performance as Whale's grumpy, east European house keeper and Rosalind Ayers gives a fantastic, if brief performance, recreating 'Bride of Frankenstein' actress Elsa Lanchester. Carter Burwell's score has long been one of my favourite film pieces and it's simple melody serves to highlight the mood as the movie swings between 30s melodrama, Hollywood glamour and the horror of the trenches. We get a real sense of a lonely man, terrified of losing his mental faculties and retreating into a fantasy of his former life.

My only criticism of the movie, and it is slight, is that as a Black Country boy myself, the accents in the flash back sequences of Whale's childhood bear no resemblence to reality and no Dudley boy would describe themselves as coming from the 'north' of England. I'm just guessing that the American audience would not understand a word of Black Country if it had been accurately scripted!

A minor quibble, this movie does a lot to bring to the attention a Dudley boy who is criminally overlooked in his home town where there is not so much as a plaque dedicated to his memory.