Gods and Monsters (1998)

Improbable revisionist dramatics, "Gods and Monsters" splays itself across the screen like a drunken whore at a frat party. It isn't that the film is bad; It's just that it's so bold and realistic in it's depiction of a homoerotic relationship, that it leaves no room for art, intrigue, story, plot or characters. Then it has a highly romanticized ending that simply is not believable and an epilogue that can only be described as nonsense.

Maybe it is that the relationship displayed here hit's too close to home. I can understand the May-December posturing substituting as romance here, but I can't find any interesting qualities within it's realm. Ian McKellen, an awesome actor, is so old and withered and fey here that we find little to like about him. He has one good story, but Brendan Fraiser, as a youthful admirer, hangs on his every word as if it were golden. Fraser, meanwhile, is supposed to play sort of an oaf and a lout and, by God, he can't pull it off! He's simply too cute, and sweet, and innocent and charming to be a lout. And his oaf comes across as sort of a weak imitation of his "George of the Jungle" persona. We need a real "tough" young actor to play this role. If only they'd waited a couple of years and cast Brad Renfro. Or Brendan 
Sexton III.

McKellen plays James Whale, the openly gay Hollywood director who is mainly remembered for making the first two "Frankenstein" pictures. But the scenes of Whale/McKellen making the films are lackluster at best. Why even include them? They add nothing to the story being proffered here and, worse yet, look completely phony.

Whale/McKellen has better luck telling his WWI tales. But the graphics that accompany his ramblings, like the lousy "Frankenstein" film set, looks fake. Hollywood folderol. It doesn't look "real" at all. Are Whale's memories supposed to look like cheap Hollywood sets? It's doubtful, since the film hinges on a plot twist of a memory associated with "The Great War." At least the "kicker" of all of these WWI back flashes is quite biting. Whale tells a repulsive story which dehumanizes him quite effectively.

Meanwhile, Fraser plays a gardener who befriends the aging director as he lives in his self-imposed exile from work. Whale explains his reason for leaving Hollywood, but it's surely nowhere as interestingly told as it would have been to see cinematically or to have explored in plot. Still, with only the director's words for magic, Fraser falls for the older man like a great big slobbering Labrador Retriever, listening aptly and giving feasibility to the flashbacks.

Also along for the ride is Lynn Redgrave as Whale's live-in maid. She is German so she calls Whale "Master" (like his monster, get it...) and runs around looking like his stone-faced cinematic creation as well. See, she is supposed to represent the monster who loves the master or something. Okay, I'm not sure what she represents, I just know it somehow ties into the Frankenstein thing but for the life of 
me I cannot figure out the correlation.

"Gods and Monsters" is rather repulsive. Not just because of it's bad cinematography, it's poor characterizations or it's poor acting (on Redgrave and Fraser's part) but because of it's depiction of homosexuality as "evil." Ah, yes it does! McKellen is not repressed. He is openly gay but, gay or straight, he's a rather poor excuse for a human being and it is not much fun to be around him. He is not charming or witty or urbane or insightful, like a good homosexual. Rather, he is smarmy, smug, effeminate and distasteful. He may regret his past as an uncaring soul, but he tries to justify it by xplaining  his roots (poor lower class upbringing and family), or exposing his hypocrisy (the WWI story, the Hollywood party debauchery). Whatever, we really don't care for him and his flagrant homosexuality only adds to the "supposed" dislikeability inherent within him. 

See, in the film, Whale is portrayed as "good" because he is "out" and "open." To contrast this, we are shown George Cukor briefly as well. Cukor is "bad" because he is "closeted" and "pretends." But Whale's only "good" quality is his openness. However, he is only open because it shows a contempt for his peers and because it pays a debt to his past. It's all rather like rubbish. There is simply nothing likable about this guy. He gives homosexuality a bad name.

Whale was an open homosexual who left Hollywood behind him after his greatest successes. He was more than likely killed by a bit of rough trade, his gardener, for some reason or another. Romanticizing this is like making shit smell good by spraying Glade on it. The cinematic equivalent of this is the stupefying epilogue which ends the film, where the now older and married Fraser (in reality, probably a  killer, in cinematics, the would-be "love interest") takes out the trash and then plays in the rain pretending to be the Frankenstein monster. Drivel.

Note: Written and Directed by Bill Condon (unfortuate last name) whose only former feature film was "Candyman 2: Farewell to the Flesh." Based ont he novel "Father of Frankenstein" by Christopher Bram. Produced by Clive Barker. Music by Carter Burwell.

Also with Lolita Davidovich and David Dukes. Elsa Lanchester, Boris Karloff, and Colin Clive are portrayed as characters.


The term "Gods and Monsters" is in a line from Whale's "The Bride of Frankenstein (1935)."

Report Card

Script: F

Acting: D

Cinematography\Lighting: F

Special Effects\Make Up: F

Music: C

Final Grade: D-