FFWD Weekly
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| Film by FFWD Staff Gods and Monsters In 1957, James Whale, a retired director famous for his Frankenstein and Bride of Frankenstein films, was found dead in his swimming pool under mysterious circumstances. This film is an inquiry into what may have happened to Whale in his last days. I have not seen as magnificent a performance as Ian McKellen’s portrayal of the late James Whale in quite some time. Gods and Monsters evolves very slowly into an examination of the mind of a tortured artist and homosexual. McKellen captures every moment perfectly, bouncing from normalcy to madness and back again in the blink of an eye, and he does so convincingly. Here’s one Academy Award nomination that was more than deserved. Also good in a fine cast are Brendan Fraser as the persona he’s mastered so well – the lovable hunk with soul. Lynn Redgrave goes a little overboard as Hanna the German housekeeper, but the campiness seems to work, especially in light of all the horror film flashbacks throughout. The film is full of wonderful visual motifs, all from the tormented mindscape of Whale – especially effective is the recurring silhouette of the monster in a field at night. The flashbacks seem clumsy and contrived at first, but once it’s clear they are part of Whale’s illness and his inability to escape the demons of his past, they work well. Gods and Monsters does not jump out at you like formula films. It does not contain acts and climactic moments, rather, it just oozes with humanity, exploring life in all its pathos and irony. It can best be described in Whale’s own words when describing his 1931 masterpiece, Frankenstein. He points out that the movie was intended to be a comedy and very few got the joke – the serious and scary side was there for all the rest. Gods and Monsters ends with a nonsensical epilogue: Fraser lumbering around as the monster in the rain many years later. The image is a powerful summation of the subtleties of this enormous script. |
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