A little flawed

Rating: 6/10 (9 April 2010)

Everybody knows the tale of Dracula, or at least, have a vague understanding of the mythos. For those that need a little reminder the story is rather simple. Jonathan Harker travels from London to the Carpathian Mountains, on the border to Transylvania. There he meets Count Dracula and acts as his solicitor. Dracula then moves to London and all manner of strange things occur.
Francis Ford Coppola's version strays little from this vague introduction that I have afforded, but that, I am afraid, is where the similarity ends. The characters names remain the same but the actions they carry out are completely alien to the source material. For example the love story between Mina Harker and Dracula is a completely new angle on the tale. Throughout the movie many of these changes occur. It is so far removed from the original that you may even question if the writers ever read it! If you have read the book then you may take offense to Coppola's interpretation. The only way I managed to enjoy it, having read the book, is forcing myself to believe it is not part of the same story ark.
The saving grace of this film is undoubtedly Gary Oldman. It takes an acting pro to hold a film on his own, thankfully Oldman is just that. Upon watching his performance it is hard to imagine anyone else in the role. It is unequivocally the role he was born to play! It is unfortunate that an actor is the saving grace of a film but that is often the way. I will not even begin to discuss Keanu Reeves' acting in this, let's just say it wasn't that good, (little surprise there then).
In all this film would be more aptly named "Coppola's Dracula," at least the fans of the book would be appeased. There is something to be said for the special effects on the film, as they are quite groundbreaking. I would suggest checking out the special features to see how they were done as it is intriguing, to say the least. All I can say is watch the film, it is an excellent portrayal by Oldman I am sure you will agree, but the film is "A little flawed."