Frankenstein

A sweeping, epic fantasy that only the brilliant Guillermo Del Toro could create, FRANKENSTEIN is a big, sprawling, beautiful cinematic experience that I can't wait to watch again.

It's been a lifelong quest to bring Mary Shelley's classic to the screen for Del Toro, and that passion shows. Each frame is a carefully crafted, stunning visual experience.

From an ice bound ship (yes, that was built for real, not CGI) to the most stunning Dr. Frankenstein lab ever seen, this one knocked me out for every bit of its never slow, two and a half hour running time.

Del Toro structures the film like an intricate fantasy/horror puzzle, popping back and forth in time as our main characters tell their story.

We meet Victor Frankenstein (the reliably great Oscar Isaac) as he flees from a massive, growling creature across a barren ice landscape, where he's brought aboard that massive, icebound ship by Captain Anderson (Lars Mikkelsen). Victor tells his story, starting with his childhood, in scenes that capture a youth of wealth and strict discipline at the hands of his father Leopold (the regal and perfectly cast Charles Dance from "Game of Thrones"). Leopold is a famous surgeon when the science was just emerging. I'll share no more, except to say that this entire sequence captures the beauty of the age like no film since Kubrick's stately 1975 film "Barry Lyndon". The lush countrysides, the falling snow, the color contrasts in the funeral scene....I kept popping back to watch them again. Visually stunning and sure to earn Director of Photography Dan Lausten (The Color Purple, John Wick 4) and Oscar nomination.

Victor is much closer to his Mother (Mia Goth) who offers him kindness and comfort in the face of his Father's demands. Goth's costumes in these scenes are incredible. Del Toro weaves together his costumes, set design and photography in a way that's wholly recognizable as his film. That style has never been better utilized.

The film moves forward to the bits of the Frankenstein story that we remember from James Whale's original classic film and every iteration since, but they are re-imagined here into something much more epic in scale.

Victor begins his experiments to bring the dead back to life. He's shunned by the medical community but gathers intense interest from Harlander, a wealthy man with unlimited funds who finds a kindred spirit in Victor. Christoph Waltz (Inglorious Basterds, Django Unchained) is perfectly cast, bringing just the right tinge of eccentricity alongside the pathos.

Harlander's niece Elizabeth (Mia Goth-again!) is betrothed to Victor's younger brother William, played by Felix Kammerer (All Quiet on the Western Front) as a young man on the right side of wealth, ambition and life, challenged by the much darker drive of his older brother.

Del Toro delivers one visual wonder after another as Harlander and William construct Victor's laboratory in an abandoned, cliffside castle. Then he delves directly into the graphic gathering of all the strong, dead bodies that are graphically carved into a wholly new, massive Creature.

There are few more famous scenes in cinema than the 1931 original film with lightning bolts and tesla coils sparking in black and white while Colin Clive screams, "It's Alive!!!!".

Rather than recreate it, Del Toro's creates something much bigger, more dangerous and incredible to watch. Along with the ship, the laboratory and catacombs beneath it were also full size, practical sets built for the film. That matters.

Jacob Elordi is excellent as The Creature, blending menacing stature with childlike innocence perfectly. Just when I thought the role wasn't going to offer Elordi more than a few grunts and a single word, Del Toro turns the film on its head and structures the ability for the Creature to share his tale.

And what a tale it is. It was such a pleasure for me to discover, I'm not going to ruin a bit of it for you by detailing the Creature's story.

Elordi endured 10 hours a day in the makeup chair, often doing 20 hour days on the production, prompting Del Toro to call him "superhuman".

David Bradley (After Life) also delivers in an important role as the blind man with a much bigger part in the story than Gene Hackman had in "Young Frankenstein".

As Victor and The Creature's two tales begin to blend, there are grand scale events of destruction. Some of property, some of the heart.

There's a fascinating relationship as Elizabeth discovers the creature shackled beneath the laboratory. A mental child ready to be molded.

Goth and Elordi are great in these scenes that maybe only Del Toro could mold so delicately. Look, he managed to emotionally connect a woman and a fish creature in his brilliant "The Shape of Water", my favorite film of 2017, so perhaps creating a bond between an innocent semi-human creature and an intelligent young woman or another era comes naturally, but this level of film making doesn't.

Del Toro says so much here, especially when you consider that the newly born Creature, like every newborn, is a blank imprint for the world to instill the values and attitudes of the people in its life. Consider Victor and Elizabeth and the impact they have on shaping the Creature. You could talk about those scenes for hours, and I imagine many will.

I loved observing how the creature went from stooping over at birth to standing boldly and confidently by film's end, in direct opposition to Victor's own bearing.

It's one of a thousand tiny details that permeate every layer of another Del Toro masterpiece.

The heart of the film is about love, forgiveness and the legacy we all inherit, wrapped in one of the biggest, most beautiful gothic horror films I've ever seen.

Alexandre Desplat bathes the entire film in a symphonic score that perfectly complements the emotions of the film, just as he did with "The Shape of Water".

Like that film, FRANKENSTEIN may just be my favorite film of the year.

Del Toro's done it again, as ONLY he can. A stunning A+.