Stylistic opulence at the expense of heart and soul

Rating: 7/10 (16 July 2000)

this film is first and foremost about style. the director pulls out all the stops (perhaps excessively) to make for a visually striking, but also highly contrived, movie experience. the story and characters take second place to coppola's masterful stylistic manipulations as director. the costumes and set pieces are gorgeous. the film's gothic atmosphere is highly charged with dark eroticism and sensuality, most obviously manifest in the character of lucy, played with slutty mischievousness by sadie frost. keanu reeves is rarely a good choice for any part and here he is particularly ill-cast. winona ryder, as delicately luminous and porcelain-skinned as she may be, also fails to give her character any real edge or depth. in the case of both young actors their silly english accents only emphasize their shortcomings in their respective roles. anthony hopkins takes his usual place by pompously posturing as the brilliant but creepy weirdo. gary oldman in the key role, however, is marvelously convincing as the tormented yet magnetic count dracula. his performance is genuinely good. but even dracula is secondary to the real point of this film: the showcasing of coppola's prodigious skills as a stylist, which alone is reason enough to watch