Guillermo del Toro’s grand, cool, lumbering monster

movie review

FRANKENSTEIN

Running time:
149 minutes.
In select theaters Oct. 17. On Netflix, Nov. 7.

TORONTO — Guillermo del Toro has taken the exhumed limbs of his career and sewn them together into “Frankenstein,” which had its Canadian premiere Monday at the Toronto International Film Festival.

There’s the gothic mansion and blood-red costumes from “Crimson Peak.” Let’s shove that one in a socket.

Of course, a misunderstood creature is visited by an empathetic woman while imprisoned in a lab of giant green glass cylinders, just as in “The Shape of Water.” Screw that on.

The action sequences — I don’t recall so many explosions ever being in Mary Shelley’s novel — ring of “Hellboy.” Fetch the sutures.

It’s all very del Toro. The Mexican Oscar winner is nothing if not distinctive. He crafts frightful worlds of dark fantasy to escape to at your peril; secret gardens where all the plants are poisonous, no matter how gorgeous on the outside.

He’s said to have been long obsessed with “Frankenstein,” and on paper it’s a perfect fit. Were del Toro and the horror story on Tinder, they’d both swipe right with gusto.

Now matched, however, the fruit of their laboratory is a little lifeless. The movie is always cool, attractive and occasionally entertaining. And, the best part, Jacob Elordi’s sensitive Creature, is a smart rejection of the old Boris Karloff, Herman Munster, Peter Boyle in “Young Frankenstein” image that reigns supreme in pop culture.

Oscar Isaac plays Victor Frankenstein in Guillermo del Toro’s new adaptation. AP

But beyond tiny plot deviations, such as making Elizabeth (Mia Goth) Victor’s brother’s fiancée instead of his, “Frankenstein” unfolds like an hourly ferry ride — predictably and with the same old scenery, however appealing that may be.

Oscar Isaac plays the insane scientist Victor Frankenstein, who’s found by seafarers injured in the Arctic. His Creature has chased him there across the ice. The monster was always super strong, but now he’s Captain Geneva. He absurdly lifts the freakin’ ship.

Fearing he’ll be killed, Frankenstein recounts to the ship’s captain his story of being a little boy who loses both his parents, including his cruel father, to later become a mocked researcher fixated on reviving the dead.

The movie has a similar aesthetic to “The Shape of Water” and “Crimson Peak.” AP

Isaac is never less than Abby Normal. Adult Victor is mad from milisecond one and the actor’s performance is pitched to a wide-eyed extreme that makes you wonder if the lightning struck him. Whenever the character is on-screen, you wish he’d go away.

We’re supposed to side with the Creature, true, not Frank, but some balance would have made for a more enticing movie.

Using stitched body parts and specialized equipment, Frankenstein creates his man — who appears to be the lovechild of Steven Tyler and the Statue of Liberty. He’s born with a toddler’s confusion and curiosity, which Victor interprets as dangerous stupidity and chains him up in a dungeon.

Scenes in which the lonely Creature gently explores his surroundings and interacts with Elizabeth are where the movie finds itself and when we remember that there are actual humans in it.

Jacob Elordi makes a sensitive Creature. AP

Elordi, known for playing uggos like Elvis and Heathcliff in the upcoming “Wuthering Heights,” turns the experiment into a coy romantic that’s easy to care about. It’s a shrewd transformation that should worry Bill Skarsgard about being knocked off his beastly perch.

In the second half, rather than revving up, del Toro’s tale slackens. The Creature tells his side of the story, from his escape from the blown-up Chez Frankenstein to a short stay in a cottage with an open-hearted blind man.

All of that’s in Shelley’s book. The director doesn’t have any new spin on it, though, and takes his sweet time getting back to the Arctic boat.

AP

Del Toro leans hard on visuals to fuel “Frankenstein.” There’s a bloody, fun grand guignol aspect that makes sense for a character who goes grave shopping in the 19th century. And the bold costumes are spectacular as they unfurl in the wind. Some of the computerized special effects, especially fires, look cheap.

Most of the craftsmanship, however, is very fine.

Del Toro has whipped up a monster that’s enjoyable enough to stare at, all right. And you’ve gotta admire his handiwork. What’s missing are what the Creature hungers for most of all — life and love.