Product: Gods and Monsters (1998)
Rating: 5.0
A Beautiful, Captivating Film
Gods and Monsters' is filmmaking at its best, depicting the final days of James Whale, a complex and complicated man, famous for directing the first two `Frankenstein' films, 'The Invisible Man', and the original movie version of `Showboat.' Exquisite performances are given by the great Sir Ian McKellen as Whale, who executes every nuance, every witticism, every emotion, with a perfection that is little short of incredible; Lynn Redgrave as Hanna, Whale's formidable but devoted housekeeper; and Brendan Fraser, in a wonderfully humane acting turn as Clayton Boone, Whale's hunky groundskeeper, who is unwittingly and inexorably drawn into Whale's ever-increasingly confused and confusing world. Whale's initial interest in Clay is sexually motivated, but the relationship becomes much more labyrinthine for both men than is originally bargained for. But the real `stars' of this movie are the direction (Bill Condon, who also wrote the screenplay) and the cinematography, producing visuals that are often haunting and infinitely memorable, especially during the flashback sequences and in the metaphorical "monster" scenes. One of my favorites is a scene in which Fraser gazes at his own reflection in a sink filled with water--it's a breathtakingly fragile image, shivery and shimmering and achingly delicate, and it seems to suggest at something much deeper and far-reaching within Clay himself. This is a film filled with such images and subtext--dreamlike, poetic touches, superimposed within the structure of an otherwise `conventional' story. Superb.