Shows the human side of the Count

Rating: 10/10 (18 October 2005)

If you want a plot summary, read some of the other reviews, because I don't want to regurgitate what they're saying. All I wanted to add was that this movie tops any of the Dracula films ever created, and actually goes so far as to make me appreciate the book more
Yes, the book. This is the ONLY Dracula movie ever to stick almost directly to Bram Stoker's novel, and it does so with only one variation. In the novel, Mina Harker never has an affair with the Count, and never speaks to him except from at her husband's side. For that matter, nothing of Elisabeta was ever mentioned; obviously all of this just popped out of Francis Ford Coppola's head, and I admire that. Other that that... the movie follows the book practically page by page, through Jonathan Harker's journal, through Mina's letters, through Jack Seward's diary, and through Abraham Van Helsing's letters. You can say what you like about how boring Keanu Reeves was, or how over-the-top Winona Ryder was, but I believe that the characters in the film were excellently copied from those in the book, and that the movie was extremely well casted. (Jonathan Harker WAS boring, and Mina WAS a bit melodramatic, by the way...)
I can't say which I like better, the book or the movie, but I can at least admit that Count Dracula is my favorite Gary Oldman role. The special effects and costuming are fantastic, and the supporting cast is amazing, as well. Anthony Hopkins's is the most true portrayal of Abraham (and the recently renamed "Gabriel") Van Helsing, of any other in film, and you can only love his eccentric-godfather sort of role to Jack Seward. The diversion of the film from the EVIL of Dracula, to his more human side, is much different from the book, and is both refreshing and attractive.
I have nothing more to say, except that any person who reads the novel, must next see this movie; it brings ideas to the mind that the book alone did not. Thank you for your time, and enjoy the show.