Guillermo del Toro is known for visually arresting and darkly imaginative creations. For GDT fans, he can do no wrong. I, however, am not one to give the director a free pass—I’ve loved some of his work, while finding chunks of his resume to be missing “something”—so let’s be clear: Frankenstein is indeed visually arresting and darkly imaginative, and it is certainly well executed, but it’s a film missing the emotional heft you’d expect from something of this order. To call it soulless would be wholly incorrect; to call it soul-limited would be reasonable.
Frankenstein, the latest adaptation of Mary Shelley’s famous novel, stars Oscar Isaac as the titular character and Jacob Elordi as his monstrous creature. Christoph Waltz and Mia Goth also have major roles. The cast is good all around, though groundbreaking these performances are not. Isaac is strong but his Dr. Frankenstein feels incredibly neutral—you neither despise him for his carelessness nor empathize with him. He’s just a dude who made a monster. Elordi is much the same; his creature does beg for some compassion, but he’s largely underdeveloped as a fully realized character.
It’s in the depth of character that del Toro often fails to delve, despite being known for delivering up creative characters. This is Frankenstein’s weakness: it looks beautiful, the writing is relatively strong, and the story itself is timeless (or is it tired?), but it’s light on emotion despite a story that craves it. It’s as if del Toro is his titular character; he created something magnificent but lost sight of what really matters.
Given its emotional limpness, Frankenstein, clocking in at two-and-a-half hours, sags and strains against its stitches, never boring and yet in desperate need of an electrical jolt to the brain.
GDT fans think he can do no wrong. Sadly, Frankenstein is yet another GDT movie where everything looks and sounds better than what lies beneath.
Review by Erik Samdahl. Erik is a marketing and technology executive by day, avid movie lover by night. He is a member of the Seattle Film Critics Society.