Hammier than Hammer

Rating: 3/10 (22 July 2006)

I'm not a big fan of vampire movies, and I'll admit I've never seen the Beli Lugosi version, but this rendition was just ludicrous. I have read the book "Dracula", which is also melodramatic and old-fashioned, but I expected something a little more subtle and sophisticated from the legendary director of "The Godfather" and "Apocalypse Now". Throughout this film, wolves howl and women chant on an incessant loop. Gary Oldman's makeup and prosthetics are elaborate and constantly changing - he becomes wolf-man, bat-man, and plastic-skinned-elderly-man-with-extra-joints-on-digits. Winona Ryder attempts an English accent (I almost wept!) and creepy shadow effects are bungled over and over again. Where's the subtlety? Never once was it believable. We are taught that a soundtrack is only working if we do not notice it. This one blared like a rude car radio. We are taught that fear comes from not knowing quite what the danger is. Oldman's Dracula does not emerge from shadow, but is illuminated from the beginning by excessive studio lighting. For all its opulent budget, this film never once began to draw me into the story - I was too caught up observing, "My, what an opulent budget this film had! Look at the costumes! Look at the sets! Listen to that expensively recorded soundtrack!" It never became real.
Another point which confuses me greatly is this: Coppola was determined to be loyal to the original text. He lovingly named the project "Bram Stoker's Dracula". He apparently made the actors sit for two days and read "Dracula" together, so that he could make sure they knew exactly what happened and come to him with things he might have left out of the script. He wanted to make it just right. Completely faithful. And yet he allowed a highly prominent subplot to be introduced in his film: the suggestion that Mina (Ryder) is the reincarnation of his long-dead love, Elisabetha. Not only was it absent from the novel, it was quite excruciating to watch.
The performances rather upset me. Oldman was a disgusting mixture of earnest and hammy. Ryder was... well, she's more there for her heaving bosom, but lovely as it was, she just wasn't meant to play a period piece. Keanu Reeves put up a fairly decent performance as Jonathan Harker, but his slightly Asian features put me off balance. Like Winona, he just didn't really fit.
They say scores upon scores of movies have been based on "Dracula". I've yet to see one I was impressed with.