whacked out but strangely satisfying

Rating: Null/10 (3 December 1999)

This was one strange experience. When you first watch it you'll probably be blown away by the unevenness of the screenplay. You don't know what's what and who's who. Who's good, who's' bad. It's a little too "soap opera" in some scenes. The whole film feels like you're watching a stage play or closer to the point, reading the book.
If you let this movie get to you, it's a very creepy film! More so than most films I've seen in a long time. It's a costume melodrama in the slower parts of the film, in other parts, it's a close retelling of the original story. Coppola was, to my knowledge, the first director of a Dracula movie that so strongly indulged the vampire sexuality as much in to the vampire legend. In the scene where Gary Oldman meets Winona Ryder in her room, Coppola even uses the diffuser or "Vaseline on the lens" tricks that he's honed since his earlier days as a sex film director.

The story is sometimes hard to follow, it does jump around a lot, but the acting, makeup, sets and camera work is just exquisite. Top of the line. Makes it all worth seeing.
Winona Ryder is absolutely gorgeous in this film. So is her friend Lucy. And if anybody knows what was up with that "run through the garden in the rain" sequence, email me and let me know. I mean, yeah I loved it, but what was it about?