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FRANKENSTEIN AND ME (1996)
I feel like I'm the only one who isn't overly enthused about Guillermo Del Toro's Frankenstein. I only mention it because it seems to lack a key element that I was able to find in Frankenstein and Me. That key element? Fun! Remember fun? It was what you experienced as a kid when you first saw the Universal horror movies. I'm sorry, but I can't be frightfully ardent for a 150-minute period piece. A love story, at that...perish the thought. This obscure curiosity nails the kind of vibe I was hoping to sluice out of both Del Toro's Frankenstein and the recent stab at The Wolf Man (or as a friend called it, Rabies Dad). I can't believe it slipped past me in the 90's, but that's why I take requests on occasion. The cast is outright bizarre. Burt Reynolds - who could have easily been played by Norm Macdonald - stars as a dreamer. That's how he is described anyway. He is the main character's father, and roughly 30 minutes into the film, he dies of sudden heart failure. So that's a bummer.
Frankenstein and Me tells the story of how a little boy copes with the loss of a loved one. How is it horror-adjacent, you may ask? Valid question. There is a pastiche of nostalgia-tinted daydream sequences that depicts young Earl as the mad doctor in Frankenstein or as the tragic lycanthropic figure in The Wolf Man. These scenes are lovingly shot. As a matter of fact, I loved 'em, and I have to imagine that any other monster kid would feel the same way. Without revealing too much, we also get a secondary arc that deals with a carnival sideshow attraction. I would have liked Frankenstein and Me to focus a little more on its sci-fi underbelly, but I'm quibbling. This is an engrossing picture. I think it premiered on the Disney channel, but I haven't come across any hard evidence to back up such a claim. Random trivia! This flick features the screen debut of Ryan Gosling. Oh my God, you guys, he's so cute.
Click HERE to read my review of 2000's Believe. Same director. And strangely, same MPAA rating (PG).
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