Mary Shelley's Frankenstein

The recent motion picture version of Mary Shelley's novel Frankenstein hews closely to the plot of the novel while failing to capture its essential purpose. The full title of the movie is Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, but the possessive does not mean that this version can be considered Mary Shelley's vision. Janet Maslin of the New York Times notes this when she writes that the film

will not strike anyone as chiefly Mary Shelley's invention. Its principal architect is Kenneth

Branagh. . . [who] takes on the godlike, idealistic young scientist's role while also directing this "Frankenstein" as an overheated romantic fable (Maslin C1).

An examination of the book and the film shows where the attitudes of the creators of each clearly diverge.

The story of Frankenstein as told in this film is in certain ways closer to the book by Mary Shelley than earlier film adaptations as far as the details of the plot are concerned. The narrative by Shelley begins and ends in the frozen wastes of the Arctic, for instance, and the film includes this framing device. The film also includes some of the details of Victor Frankenstein's childhood, especially his developing relationship with Elizabeth. The primary difference in plot between the book and the film at this point is in the character of Henry Clerval, his boyhood friend from whom he is separated when he goes to the university. In the film version, he meets Henry at the university.

It is not in the details of the plot tha

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hip, but Walton here is not the brooding and near-manic explorer that is seen in the film. It is not enough for characters to have identities and to have obsessions--they must wear those obsessions for all to see. Branagh may be trying to link Walton and Frankenstein as men cut from a similar cloth, but what is wrong is the cloth he selects. Shelley's Walton and Frankenstein are alike in that both are rational men, men of science, and men who understand one another because both are educated. Branagh's Walton and Frankenstein are alike in that both are borderline obsessives who will push and prod anyone and everyone to see to it that they achieve what they set out to achieve. David Ansen points out that the film "strains for grand theatrical effects at every turn" (Ansen 73), another way of noting the need for high energy over any other element in the film. Ansen believes that Branagh is torn between different requirements. He says that on the one hand the director wants to restore the passionate emotional scale of the last century to the story, but he also wants to appeal to the MTV generation which is presumed to have a short attention span: What we get is Romanticism for short attention spans; a lavishly decorated hor

Category: Film - M