Keanu Reeves makes the movie

Rating: 9/10 (10 September 2006)

This is probably my favorite of all the many, many film adaptations of Stoker's novel I've seen. Despite its slightly psychedelic visuals, Coppola really captures the essential tensions of the text, and if he focuses too much on the Dracula/Mina love story, he is still closer to the action of the book than 90% of the film versions available.
But the real winner here is whoever did the casting for this flick. Oldman is suitably snarky as the Count, more dirty-old-man than fiend here, while Rider and Hopkins chew the scenery in most of the right places. But the gem of the bunch, and the actor who really sells me on this version as an accurate adaptation of Stoker's work, is Keanu Reeves.
Keanu Reeves, like Jack Nicholson, is strictly a one-trick-pony, acting-wise. For Nicholson, it's the gigglingly violent manic-depressive. He's got the crazy-thang down pat, but whenever he plays any other kind of role he falls right on his butt. For Keanu Reeves, think back to his star-maker, Bill n' Ted's Excellent Adventure. What Keanu Reeves, in all his blow-dried glory, pulls off well is pure California Stoner.
Cast him as an action star in The Matrix and you've got crapola, cast him as a Shakespearian villain in Much Ado About Nothing, and it's laughable. But cast him as an everyman who is caught up in Things He Cannot Control, and he pulls it off neatly. Think of his signature line: "whoah." It's the mating cry of the laid-back schmuck, run up against something WAY too heavy for him to handle. It's why the only parts of The Matrix that work, acting-wise, are those in which Keanu is dorking around, bumbling from one chaotic nightmare to another, totally over his head. The second he tries to pull off the uber-cool hero schtick, he blows it.
Luckily, in Coppola's Dracula, all Reeves has to do is play his best role. Johnathan Harker is Stoker's everyman, a typical English twit, prissy, correct, and utterly devoid of imagination. The whole reason the Count can get away with his invasion of Englan is because Johnathan is too dull to conceive of really cosmic evil. Dracula gives the guy about 400 clues as to his demonic nature, and they just wash over Harker like oil over a goose. Reeves plays that up in the flick...blue flames, giant wolves, people crawling backwards down the walls, and he just goes "whoah," then gets on with arranging paperwork. Pure gold.
When you get to Hopkins or Rider's overly-dramatic huffing and puffing, it's almost a let-down from the subtle humor of seeing Ted 'Theodore' Logan trapped in Castle Dracula. Grade: A.