2026 Academy Awards Best Picture Nominee - Frankenstein

• IMDB link: Frankenstein
• Tagline: "Dr. Victor Frankenstein, a brilliant but egotistical scientist, brings a creature to life in a monstrous experiment that ultimately leads to the undoing of both the creator and his tragic creation."
• My Best Picture Project

    I have something of a complicated relationship with Frankenstein.  I admire it as the spiritual mother of science fiction, and when I was 19, I read it in one sitting for a literature class in college and loved it, but now, at 56, not so much.  Damn novel reads like it was written by a dramatic, emo teenager, which, I suppose, it was.  

    So far, my favorite rendition of Frankenstein is Frankenstein - Playing with Fire by Barbara Field, which I saw at the Guthrie Theater in 2018.  And after seeing the Guillermo del Toro exhibit at the Minneapolis Institute of Art a few years ago and his lifelong obsession with Frankenstein, I expected to like this movie.  Don't get me wrong: this version is by far the best movie adaptation I've seen and the truest (though not entirely true) to the source material. It's simply gorgeous, but del Toro couldn't resist tinkering with the story in ways that didn't improve it.

    Note: I'm assuming you know the story, and will be discussing spoilers. If you don't, you should probably stop reading now.

   

    Let's start with Elizabeth. I liked that she has more to say in this version, but directors just can't just seem to leave poor Elizabeth alone. In the Kenneth Branagh version, Victor turns Elizabeth into a bride for the monster (whut?), and in this version, Victor accidentally shoots her (again, whut?) when she is about to marry his brother (third whut).  In the book, Elizabeth and Victor were childhood sweethearts and the Monster kills her on their wedding night.   Seriously, that is more of a gut punch than the weird love triangle in this movie.

 

    The book makes it clear that Victor's creation was quite brutal, killing children (Victor's brother William) and women (Elizabeth) just to punish Victor. A Sesame Street monster, he was not. So when Mary Shelley shows you that Victor is even worse, well, she's really saying something.  On the other hand, del Toro softens the monster, limiting his violence to moments of self-defense. He doesn't hesitate to kill people who are trying to kill him, but he is tender and protective of innocents and those with sympathy toward him (like Elizabeth).  

    

    While softening the Monster, del Toro dials up Victor's monstrousness.   He loses the oh-me-oh-my-WhatHaveIDone of the book (which, to be honest, got a little tiresome at times) and makes him selfish, crazy, and just plain mean.  He outright beats the monster before abandoning him to burn to death in a rather spectacular crescendo of fiery destruction (I liked that part, actually).  In the book, Victor was young, maybe 20 or 22, and you can chalk his lack of wisdom to his still being a kid.  This Victor was in his 40s, and he just came across as a deranged asshole.

    In this version, William, who in this version is allowed to grow up and become Victor's office manager, informs his brother in what del Toro clearly intended to be A PIVOTAL SCENE, "You are the monster, Victor."  No shit, Sherlock.  It was the most bald example of directorial condescension I've ever seen.  Del Toro was .... monster-'splaining.  

    To be fair, the acting was excellent, the storytelling and cinematography, sets, and costumes were amazing, but I think Oscar Isaac was miscast, and I wish the director had stayed closer to Mary Shelley's version.

(Pithy Reviews; and Rankings* out of 10 nominees):

1. Sinners (Southern gothic vampires sing the Blues; Cathy: 1, Chris: 1)
2. Bugonia (Alien-hunting conspiracy theorists; Cathy: 4, Chris: 2)
3. Train Dreams (Dreamy old logger survives ... life; Cathy: 2, Chris: 3)
4. F1: The Movie (Mesmerizing Top Gun for Formula 1 Fans; Cathy: 3, Chris 4)
5. Frankenstein (Monster-'splaining; Cathy: 5, Chris: 5)

• Hamnet (Cathy: x, Chris: x)
• Marty Supreme (Cathy: x, Chris: x)
• One Battle After Another (Cathy: x, Chris: x)
• The Secret Agent (Cathy: x, Chris: x)
• Sentimental Value (Cathy: x, Chris: x)
• Train Dreams (Cathy: x, Chris: x)

* Rankings can change.