Not Stoker's Dracula, But Still Fun

Rating: Null/10 (16 January 2002)

I think the secret of this film is to not dwell on whether or not it is an accurate adaptation of Stoker's novel: it isn't. I remember a literature professor I had in college who taught `Dracula' in one of his classes; he said there was always at least one student every semester who would try to get around actually reading the novel by watching the movie instead. If they try that trick with this version of `Dracula,' they're in for a surprise. There are details here you don't see in other Dracula movies, like the blue flames on the road to Dracula's castle, or Dracula wandering the streets of London in daylight. Then there's BIG changes, like an origin for Dracula and the romance between the count and Mina. This is a shift in the fundamental character of Dracula, altering him from a dangerous predator, almost a plague unto himself, to a tragic lover, thus changing the tone of the entire story.
Okay, so `Bram Stoker's Dracula' isn't Stoker's after all. Does that make it a bad movie? Hardly. This `Dracula' is an epic, Gothic, lush thrill that builds to a near-hysterical pace. It succeeds in mimicking the novel's sense of panic and overwhelming horror, and if you can accept the film on its own outrageous terms, then you can enjoy it.
A word about the casting, which wanders from perfect to baffling. Anthony Hopkins brings his usual class and presence to Van Helsing, creating an aura of forbidden knowledge around the professor. Gary Oldman makes a fine Dracula, sometimes swathed in heavy makeup for Dracula's many changes, but always projecting an arrogance laced with tragedy. William O. Campbell, Richard E. Grant and Cary Elwes are perfect as Lucy Westenra's three suitors, just as I imagined them. Then, for some reason, the producers injected Keanu Reeves and Winona Ryder into the mix: while they are fine actors, they just don't belong here, and the movie suffers for it.
So. While it's not the definitive retelling of Stoker's novel that it claims to be, `Bram Stoker's Dracula' is still an atmospheric, grandiose movie, and well worth watching.