James McAvoy as Frankenstein and Daniel Radcliffe as Igor in Victor Frankenstein.
Taking great liberties with Shelley’s work, the character of Igor (Daniel Radcliffe), Dr. Frankenstein’s assistant who was first introduced in the 1939 film Son of Frankenstein, has now been folded into the tale’s core mythology. First seen as a nameless hunchback working as a clown in a traveling circus, he crosses paths with Victor Frankenstein (James McAvoy) during a performance that sees the show’s comely acrobat Lorelei (Jessica Brown Findlay) take a bad tumble and nearly lose her life. Thankfully, the crippled jester reads medical journals and anatomy books in his spare time, so he’s able to revive her. This gets the attention of Frankenstein, who takes him on as assistant, telling him to assume the identity of his roommate who’s been missing for months, and begins plumbing his mind to see if he has what it takes to help with a very…special…project.
Before you know it, Vic has drained Igor’s hump, given him a brace to help straighten his spine, and the pair are growing body parts when they can’t steal them in order to construct a creature made of dead body parts to bring to life. Yep, it’s the same old story yet there’s no question that all involved do their level best to make the old seem new again. Trouble is, they all seem to be going about it in a different manner. Radcliffe plays his role straight, making Igor a sympathetic character whose moral confusion and longing for a normal life we can readily associate with. The actor is the film’s anchor that prevents it from spinning completely out of control, and his scenes with Findlay have a ring of truth to them that’s refreshing amidst the turmoil that threatens to engulf them.
McAvoy takes a distinctly different tact as he rends the scenery every moment he’s on screen. Delivering one line after another in a maniacal manner that surely left him hoarse at the end of each day and employing wild gesticulations that must have resulted in rotator cuff injuries, the actor gives the most exhausting performance seen on screen this year. While Frankenstein is a madman, McAvoy’s interpretation of the role belongs in a parody, a camp take on the tale that McGuigan is closer to realizing here than a new reverent version of the novel.
Eventually, it becomes a bit wearing watching the actors’ dueling approaches butt up against one another. Thankfully, Eve Stewart has provided the film with a lush production design that’s never less than captivating. The streets of mid-1800’s London are awash with mud and grit, populated with hulking, run-down buildings under a perpetually overcast sky, while Frankenstein’s laboratory is a cluttered petri dish, festooned with numerous wheels, gears and belts, dwarfed by a massive bellows that seemingly breathes life into room where the doctor’s abominations are made. The final creation sequence is a keeper, as well. The remote castle where it occurs is perched on an outcrop jutting into the ocean, its center hollowed out, the creature suspended in it with steel cables, waiting for the proper bolt of lighting to bring it to life.
Had the rest of Victor Frankenstein been as well put together as its sets, McGuigan might have succeeded in breathing new life into this classic cautionary tale. Unfortunately, the end result is much like the creature at its center, as it should be put out of its misery.
Contact Chuck Koplinski at [email protected].
