Gods and Monsters is a film for the actors. Ian McKellan's performance is one of the best of the year. His manipulations and plots, fears and memories all come together to form a picture of a complete man at the end of his life. Most of the time the script helps McKellan by providing him with scenes that reflect the past onto the present.
The problems start with Brendan Fraser. A worse performance would be hard to coax out of an amateur. Besides his impressive physicality, he brings nothing to the role. Any of the scenes that focus on him rather than McKellan are disasters. Just what was going on between him and the waitress anyway? Lynn Redgrave is fine, but rather flat. She has little to work with but does make the best of it.
The script is, as stated above, fine, but it is not excellent. It does a good job of bringing together many of Whale's memories into a shifting pattern of emotions and thoughts. It also links him to the lost generaton of World War I quite well, but it fails to connect the intervening years and the art Whale produced to that period. The film ends up being a bit slight, but it is recommended for McKellan.
The problems start with Brendan Fraser. A worse performance would be hard to coax out of an amateur. Besides his impressive physicality, he brings nothing to the role. Any of the scenes that focus on him rather than McKellan are disasters. Just what was going on between him and the waitress anyway? Lynn Redgrave is fine, but rather flat. She has little to work with but does make the best of it.
The script is, as stated above, fine, but it is not excellent. It does a good job of bringing together many of Whale's memories into a shifting pattern of emotions and thoughts. It also links him to the lost generaton of World War I quite well, but it fails to connect the intervening years and the art Whale produced to that period. The film ends up being a bit slight, but it is recommended for McKellan.