Oscar Isaac in 'Frankenstein.' Ken Woroner/Netflix Share on Facebook Share on X Share to Flipboard Send an Email Show additional share options Share on LinkedIn Share on Pinterest Share on Reddit Share on Tumblr Share on Whats App Print the Article Post a Comment Gothic horror influences have rippled through Guillermo del Toro's incantatory work since the Mexican fantasist burst onto the scene with Cronos, The Devil's Backbone and Pan's Labyrinth. The writer-director's encounter with Mary Shelley's immortal 1818 novel has been a long time coming and after too many screen adaptations to list, it feels like a lightning-charged act of reanimation. The genre-defying craftsman's sumptuous retelling of Frankenstein honors the essence of the book in that it's not so much straight-up horror as tragedy, romance and a philosophical reflection on what it means to be human. Related Stories Movies 'Late Fame' Review: Willem Dafoe Is Low-Key and Magnificent as a Former Poet Seemingly Rescued From Obscurity Movies 'No Other Choice' Review: Park Chan-wook's Satirical Thriller Is a Visual Delight That Sacrifices Its Edge to Slapstick Absent or imperfect fathers have been a recurring theme in del Toro's films, given affecting treatment here in the agonized relationship between egotistical scientist Victor Frankenstein and the unnamed Creature he brings to life out of stitched-together body parts. Frankenstein The Bottom Line It's alive! Venue: Venice Film Festival (Competition)Release date: Friday, Oct. 17 (theaters), Friday, Nov. 7 (streaming)Cast: Oscar Isaac, Jacob Elordi, Mia Goth, Christoph Waltz, Felix Kammerer, Lars Mikkelsen, David Bradley, Charles DanceDirector: Guillermo del ToroScreenwriter: Guillermo del Toro, based on the novel Frankenstein; Or, the Modern Prometheus, by Mary Shelley Rated R, 2 hours 29 minutes Those roles are played, respectively, by Oscar Isaac with the wiry intensity of a tortured artist, his strutting arrogance steadily consumed by remorse; and Jacob Elordi in a revelatory performance notable for its expressive physicality but perhaps even more so for its innocence, its deep well of yearning and the crushing emptiness that follows as the Creature comes to understand who and what he is. The movie questions whether monstrousness is something defined by appearance or actions. In addition to its emotional force, del Toro's Frankenstein is a film of heady sensorial pleasures. The director's celebrated visual imagination - channeled through exceptional work from returning collaborators including cinematographer Dan Lausten, production designer Tamara Deverell and costume designer Kate Hawley - constantly delights the eye. The bold use of color, especially the oversaturated reds and greens that scorch the shadows, is breathtaking. Meanwhile, the ears are massaged by a muscular orchestral score that's among Alexandre Desplat's most ravishing work. Broken down into a Prelude and two parts whose perspective is evident from their titles, Victor's Tale and The Creature's Tale, the story begins in the Arctic, where a Danish sea Captain (Lars Mikkelsen) oversees the attempts of his crew to dig their ship out of the ice. Investigating a fire glimpsed across the tundra, they come upon Isaac's Victor injured and near death, though his sled dogs are unharmed. (His wood and metal prosthetic leg seems a direct nod to Marisa Paredes' character in The Devil's Backbone, one of many echoes of del Toro's filmography peppered throughout.) The rampaging Creature appears almost as a giant, a towering, hooded form wrapped in animal furs. "Victor. Bring him to me," he growls, tossing aside crew members that assail him and shoot at him, and using his mighty strength to tilt the ship. When a blunderbuss blast fells the monster and he falls through cracks into the icy waters, the captain assumes their foe is dead. But Victor assures him that the Creature cannot die and will come back; he begs the Danes to leave him out on the ice and let it take him. Victor tells his story to the Captain, starting with his childhood on a grand family plantation estate that has since been lost. His French mother was his entire world until she died giving birth to her second son. That leaves the young Victor (Christian Convery) at the mercy of his cold, disciplinarian father Leopold Frankenstein (Charles Dance), a distinguished British doctor whom he suspects of saving his infant brother at the cost of his mother's life. The action jumps forward to find Victor in 1855 addressing the Royal College of Medicine, demonstrating his early success reanimating dead tissue. The bewigged medical establishment scoffs at the notion of him taking command over the forces of life and death. But for reasons beyond scientific interest that later become clear, wealthy arms merchant Heinrich Harlander (Christophe Waltz) is intrigued enough to fund Victor's ongoing research and experimentation. Around this time, Victor's golden-child younger brother William (Fel