As a preface for this review, I loved Guillermo del Toro’s “Frankenstein.” It’s visually stunning with opulent colors and details, and it’s obvious how much dedication went into every aspect, from sets to costumes to casting and directing. Every single performance is amazing. Go watch it.
However, I also adore Mary Shelley’s novel, and every departure from the original source material stood out to me. I won’t be a person who insists that an adaptation should only aim for accuracy, but I do find the choices directors make in the adaptation process interesting. For that reason, this review will focus on the significance of the changes del Toro made in his adaptation. That being said, this is your spoiler warning for both the novel and movie.
The biggest change to the movie is also the most ironic. In past adaptations, Hollywood often reduced Frankenstein’s creature to a one-dimensional monster, clearly portrayed as the villain. I think Del Toro over-corrected this. Jacob Elordi does an amazing job playing the creature in the most heart-wrenching way possible. His version of the creature never becomes as malicious as in Shelley’s novel, and his character development is shown so much love and attention throughout the writing.
On the other hand, Victor Frankenstein is portrayed as the monster in this version, to the point where he is explicitly referred to as such. He’s no longer a student, blinded by youthful ambition. Instead, he’s a grown man who’s far crueler to his creation than in the novel, to the point that when I watched the movie with friends, there was cheering when the creature threw Victor across a room. All his redeeming traits from the novel are reduced to two factors; he’s played by Oscar Issac and also that he has daddy issues. It’s a far cry from the moral complexity found in Shelley’s novel, but simplification seems inevitable with movie adaptations.
Shelley’s feminism is another important element that was entirely lost from the novel. Even though the novel only has five female characters, and of them, only Elizabeth is particularly important to the plot, Shelley uses all of them to add to the themes of her work. In the movie, only Elizabeth and Victor’s mother remain. Two female characters missing from the movie are part of the group of cottagers from whom the creature learns about human life, but they are reduced to only one old man in the movie. Those women and the men who integrated with them taught the creature to idealize women as pure saviors as was common in romanticist literature, of which Shelley was acutely aware. Without such ideas, the creature doesn’t ask for a female companion as much as just a friend. And when Victor refuses to create a companion because he thinks they’ll procreate, he doesn’t just seem more ridiculous than in the novel but also far crueler. The creature looks like he doesn’t know what the word procreate means because he hasn’t been exposed to any romantic love before.
This change, I think, is mostly an oversight on del Toro’s part, because he gives so much attention to the character of Elizabeth. Mia Goth is also amazing and stunning and talented, but her character’s only similarity to Shelley’s character Elizabeth is her name.
This Elizabeth adds so much more complexity to the dynamic between Victor and the creature. She challenges Victor’s ideas and sympathizes with the creature. Her kindness towards the creature could possibly explain why he would ask for a female companion, but their interactions are still too limited for the creature to develop sophisticated ideas about women. Elizabeth does a better job putting forth her ideas herself, and she allows the film to discuss spirituality and what makes us human more explicitly than the novel. Elizabeth’s contrary views on life and death enriches the entire movie, and I love her.
My final note is that the movie is much more heavy-handed in its themes. In addition to the conversations Elizabeth creates, Victor is called a monster–Prometheus–a man trying to play god and a father. There’s no subtlety, but there’s no subtlety in the rest of the movie.
Amid the spectacle of this film, I think every change works. I’m happy with this new installment of the Frankenstein mythos. There’s no way for del Toro to adapt everything, and what he chose to focus on is incredibly well done. It’s probably the best movie version we’re going to get of Frankenstein for a long time. As my final warning: don’t watch the movie until you’ve read the book, don’t let it shape your opinion on Victor, and when you do see it, have tissues ready.