"See What Your God Has Done To Me"

Rating: 7/10 (22 April 2016)

Well everybody knows Dracula or at least thinks they do. In reality most film portrayals emphasize the gory blood-lust horror aspects of the character, excluding everything else. These stereo-types probably do for Dracula what "Jaws" did for the white shark. Bram Stoker intended his novel to be a Gothic Romance. Although Francis Coppola does not stick faithfully to the novel, his film is probably the closest so far.
The performances are uneven at times, but are overall quite good. Coppola gathered some fine actors together with Gary Oldman in the title role, Oldman gave the role his own touch, especially his Bela Lugosi imitated accent. There were arguments with Coppola over some the star's renditions of Dracula's personality. Oldman won out, the proof is in the final cut, a fantastic performance. Anthony Hopkins plays a rather more eccentric Professor Abraham Van Helsing and plays it as if the part was made for him. Sadie Frost's portrayal of the extroverted Lucy was the best performance of this character Which I have seen to date, While Keanu Reeves came over as a wimpish Jonathan Harker, which by Stoker's description, he was not, No fault of Reeves, but rather a directorial error.
Overall rating: 7 out of 10.