Review of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein (1994) by Kimber M — 20 Sep 2008

It definitely followed the book more accurately. I think the stand out performance was from DeNiro, though. He captured the innocence of The Creature in it's pure form. Innocence not in the "free from sin" interpretation, but innocence in the "free from instruction" interpretation. It's an interesting look at what a psyche could evolve into given a lack of direct social/ moral structure and direction. His only experiences were observational and mixed at best. The residual sense memories without context only added to his confused vision of what "man" is and what he was "supposed" to be. You could see the disillusionment and sense of loss when Frankenstein couldn't answer any of the questions we would ask our makers if we could.

Kenneth Brannaugh is a marvelous actor and director. He had a wonderful vision for this movie and he brought a much less unhinged interpretation of Victor Frankenstein than we've seen in the past.

I will say here that I have noticed a seriously "Woody Allen-esque" almost incestuous troup of actors that keep cropping up in certain moves. I wonder if it was through this movie that HBC joined that crew, Hugh Laurie, Emma Thompson, Alan Rickman et al. Just kind of occurred to me while I was watching. LOL.