(reviewed on ppv, Thursday, August 5th, 1999)
Last year’s Oscar race deserves a book to be written about it. Not only did ‘Shakespeare in Love’ shock the world by beating the had-been-thought locked winner, ‘Saving Private Ryan’, but there was such a shortage of nominateable films that it seemed like the Academy members were scraping the bottom of the barrels trying to find any film to nominate. Three names were mentioned that did not get nominations; ‘Gods & Monsters’, ‘Pleasantville’, and ‘Waking Ned Devine’. While I did not see ‘Ned’ and thought ‘Pleasantville’ was good but not Oscar worthy, my mind spins in disbelievement that anyone could even consider ‘Gods’ Oscar-worthy.
It was hailed by critics and film fans, and won an Oscar for best adapted screenplay, but as I sat through this sort-of biopic it crossed my mind that the only reason it was up for all these awards (mostly critic) was because it looks like an Academy-type movie. It has it’s independent charm, it’s Academy favorite star, Ian McKellan, and it plays out dead serious when the subject matter is truly laughable.
‘Gods & Monsters’ is about the English director, Frank Whale. He was made famous for his films, ‘Frankenstein’, and ‘Bride of Frankenstein’, but the true reason he is more than famous is because secretly he was a homo.
The film picks up when he’s older than dirt, having seizure-like attacks while he remembers his awful past involving the Great War and his strict father.
A gardner, played with basic sweet nature by Brendan Fraser, attracts the gay man’s attention and soon they sort of become friends, establishing a bond while the old man struggles with these feelings of his dark past.
The one word I can come up with to call ‘G&M’ is uneven. There are a lot of great scenes here, but there are a lot of bad scenes, too, especially the awful twenty minutes the film closes with. Brendan Fraser is good, doing his basic schtick, but Ian McKellan doesn’t really prove why he was nominated, I enjoyed him better in ‘Richard the III’ and the awful ‘Apt Pupil’. The maid, played with foreign incompetence by Lynn Redgrave, is fantastic, though, leaving the film very uneven.
‘G&M’ had great intentions, but ended up being more on the lines of a wannabe-Oscar winner. It just doesn’t go the full distance this type of film should to receive it’s just desserts. **
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