Product: Gods and Monsters (1998)
Rating: 5.0
Artful, Entertaining and Moving
It hardly seems like 11 years since Gods and Monsters was released. I had the opportunity to view it again just recently and I am happy to say that this film remains as rich and full as I had recalled it being. The performance by Sir Ian McKellan reminds us just how masterful he is as an actor, and Brendan Frasier gives a nuanced performance that is subtle and reflective and reminds one that much of the art of acting is listening and reacting. Lynne Redgrave spectacularly burst back onto the scene, giving a performance as Whale's maid/friend/caretaker that is richly complex: She is a friend and employee, both loving and judgmental of Whale for his homosexual "lifestyle."The story is a simple one of friendship and understanding. It is about the ghosts which haunt us all. The Gods that have created us and the Monsters which have torn us down, and how sometimes the Monsters are what we need the most. Director Condon expertly intersperses clips from Whale's The Bride of Frankenstein with flashbacks to WWI, Whale's bygone days of fame, and young Jimmy Whale's childhood in order to give us an overview of the remarkable life this man has led. The result is that while Whale may seem like a broken down old man at the point the movie takes place, these flash backs paint a full picture of the man. Likewise, this lets us understand how Whale feels that all that he was is slipping away, just like his art is falling by the wayside. In the end, we see an immensely dignified, human being, who did wonderful things. He loved. He lost. He fought in the war. He was a hedonist. He was a pacifist. And he was loved.With Clayton Boone, the director and Brendan Frasier, give us a modern day physicality of the Frankenstein monster which first draws Whale to the young man. In the beginning, we're not quite sure what Whale wants from the lad -- does he desire a true friendship or is he just a lecherous old man-but as things progress we realize that while the friendship is important, his desire for the young Boone are a bit darker that even we could have thought. Likewise we're not sure what Clayton wants from Whale. But as we watch them become friends, we see a unique bond form...gay man to straight man...and each has found in the other someone to listen to them and understand.Perhaps unsung in this movie is the brilliant performance by Redgrave. Her housekeeper Hanna is not only an homage to Una O'Conner's "Minnie" in The Bride of Frankenstein, but an expert characterization that is humorous and judgmental and, ultimately, loving. The characterization is as broad as Whale might have directed O'Conner, but the humanity underneath it all is very, very real.Gods and Monsters is clearly fiction. No one really knows about the last days of Whale. But in that speculation, the film manages to paint a portrait of a man who was ahead of his time and who lived a life worth living. In the end, Director Condon and novelist Christopher Bram -- whose book The Father of Frankenstein serves as the underlying source of the movie -- gave Whale a friend in his last days, a young man named Clayton who was as different from Whale as he could be. They gave him a friendship, and as a result they have created a sad, touching, joyful movie about living and dying with dignity.As the Monster himself would say: Alone, bad...Friend, good.Originally reviewed for Uniquely Pleasurable.