Movies are often so packed with spectacular sights and sounds that we can easily forget about their ability to probe quieter but far more meaningful inner realities. In modern cinema, it's easy to blow up a skyscraper or a spaceship; it's far more difficult to explore loneliness and regret.
Thankfully, we've got Gods and Monsters to remind us of film's great potential to shine light into the hidden corners of human existence. This is a film about loss and loneliness and what happens when a person's reasons for living recede farther and farther into the past.
James Whale (Ian McKellen) was a 1930s film director, who made memorable classics like Frankenstein, Showboat and The Man in the Iron Mask before his career came to an early end. He was openly gay and unconcerned about controversy. Gods and Monsters is a fictional supposition of events that might have happened in the last days of Whale's life.
Whale is retired and living quietly in the Los Angeles area. His health is failing, but his interest in the young men who visit him has not abated. When Clayton Boone (Brendan Fraser) is hired to cut Whale's lawn, the old man is entranced and despite his homophobia, Boone is drawn into an unusual friendship. Whale is suffering from hallucinations of his filmmaking days and his experiences during the First World War. Boone reminds him of his youth, and in the dark, even bears a striking resemblance to Frankenstein's monster -- Whale's best-known cinematic triumph. Whale and Boone find each other fascinating, but for very different reasons. Initially, Boone considers Whale a curiosity, but this grows into a hesitant affection and empathy. Whale finds Boone sexually attractive, but he's also a reminder of Whale's glory days in his youth.
Gods and Monsters is a thoughtful and talky film with little action, but all sorts of substance.
Lynn Redgrave is absolutely terrific as Whale's servant, Hanna. She gives an understated performance as this grumpy but loving and loyal woman, with her face telling us more than her words. Brendan Fraser does a reasonable job as the final object of Whale's fascination -- a young man who stirs Whale's memories of lost loves and monsters from the past.
Principle credit for the success of Gods and Monsters must go to Ian McKellen, who is witty, sensitive, utterly believable and very sad as James Whale.
