Frankenstein. Mention the word and most people think of a large monster with plugs sticking out of his head being chased by a mob of angry villagers with torches. Contrary to this popular belief, Frankenstein was not the Monster—he was the doctor who created him. Also few people seem to know Frankenstein was based on a novel by Mary Shelly, but they have an excuse not to know—most movie adaptations don’t follow the book at all. Mary Shelly’s Frankenstein is a noticeable exception.

The first hour or so of this movie doesn’t even have the Monster. Instead, we are introduced to young Victor Frankenstein (Kenneth Branagh), his best friend Tom Hulce (the lead in the movie Amadeus), his step-sister Helena Bonham Carter (she was in Fight Club), and his teacher John Cleese (Monty Python’s Flying Circus). John Cleese is surprisingly effective in a dramatic role with little humor. His long hair and grizzled appearance makes him close to unrecognizable. After learning the ways to revive man from John Cleese, Branagh decides to create a Monster. It wrecks town, befriends a blind man, and kills many of Branagh’s family members. After a weird ending and an epilogue lifted straight from the book, both the creator and the Monster lie in peace in freezing water.

This is probably the closest one can come to adapting the book faithfully in a two hour movie. To do the book justice, you would need to do it as an uncensored 6-hour mini-series. The one thing I hate about this movie is the stupid ending where Helena Bonham Carter is sowed up to be a bride again for that necrophiliac Kenneth Branagh. It’s unintentionally hysterical. If it were up to me to direct the movie, I would have cut that part and put a part from the book earlier in the movie where on of Branagh’s relatives is killed and the town searches for the murderer and Branagh realizes it is the Monster.

The music is OK, the make-up on the Monster fantastic, and the costumes are wonderful. Kenneth Branagh’s directing is mediocre, especially his fetish with shots that circle around and around over and over again. He plays Frankenstein with a good deal of over-acting, but it’s rather hard not to when portraying a man full of passion for science.

The movie is recommended if you have a book report on the book due the next day, or if you like 90% faithful adaptations of novels.

I give Mary Shelly’s Frankenstein *** out of ****.