BRAM STOKER'S DRACULA
A film review by Terri Buchman
Copyright 1992 Terri Buchman
I couldn't decide whether Francis Ford Coppola's DRACULA was a poorly done love story or an inept horror film. I finally found it to be neither, but rather a dull mismash of unconnected visual "moments" that lacked both convincing acting and involving storylines. My overall score was a D+.
I think the thing that really threw me out of this movie was the excessive romanticism imposed on it. I never felt that Gary Oldman and Winona Ryder connected. Coppola needed to have real sparks flying between these characters for his romantic conceit to work and I found their alleged passion dull and unfocused. Mina Harker is supposed to be the Drac's reincarnated love, a love so strongly felt that he would endure centuries of living death rather than except god's judgement that parted him from his love. Yet Ryder's Mina is hardly a woman that is to die for. She is dull and self involved and the character never changes from this sort of "lifeless" state. The movie would have us believe that something in her soul recognizes Drac as her ancient love, yet no tone of voice, look of the eyes or impression of body language conveys this critical recognition. We are told to believe that meeting Drac transforms this woman, freeing her repressed sexual desires. Unfortunately none of this passion shows up on the screen.
I also disliked the character of Dracula. As written, it is a confusing portrayal that never quite gels for me. I believe that Coppola's aim was to have the audience identify with the circumstances that had made the man into the monster. Unfortunately, it didn't work for me. I found Dracula silly and melodramatic, much more bathos than pathos. Oldman never convinced me that his character was a lover jilted by god. The only emotion that seemed to come across was a sort of bored wistfulness. The strong performance that the title character needed was missing.
I found most of rest of the cast extremely forgettable. Keanu Reeves sleepwalks through his part. He is especially bad in the scenes set in Castle Dracula with the three weird sisters. Reeves seems to be nearly comatose with excitement at the prospect of forbidden sexual pleasures. Anthony Hopkins' Van Helsing seems like he wandered in from another movie, possibly a comedy. The woman playing Lucy (Name escapes me) is put in the odd position of portraying a vampire that was more sexually alluring in life than in undeath (possibly a first in vampire film history!).
Many reviews have marveled over the effects in this movie. I found most of the effects pointless and unnecessary. They distracted me from the story and destroyed what little chance there was of connecting with the characters. This movie contains endless tracking shots that go nowhere and special effects that are hardly even memorable, let alone special. I found Coppola's shadowplay mundane instead of menacing. There is almost nothing frightening in this film.
In short I found this film dull and uninvolving. It was poorly written, acted and directed. I'm afraid that I wouldn't even recommend renting the video.
TerriB.
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