In its depiction of the final days of Frankenstein director James Whale (Oscar-nominee Ian McKellan), the biopic Gods and Monsters delivers two central themes. The first is that no matter how hard you try to run from your past, it always manages to catch up to you. A harsh lesson of course, but also bittersweet. In Whale's life we see that in relinquishing the pain of his past, he also lost a priceless thing: the memory of how it felt to be loved. However, the second proposition fills you with hope. As we see in the relationship between Whale and his gardener Clayton Boone (Brendan Fraser), the oddest friendships can sometimes turn out to be the most rewarding.

I admit that I particularly loved the view of Whale as both God and monster (I'm a sucker for parallels). Creator or merely his own creation? Aren't we all a little of both? Whale not only edited his past to create a persona for ambitious purposes, but eventually came to live the role he created for himself. In doing so however, he forfeited not only the soul-killing struggle of his dirt-poor youth, but also the sweet innocence of love. A stroke having left him unable to sift through and repress these memories, Whale drowns in a sea of nostalgia that seems to have no purpose other than to drive him insane. Just when all seems lost, in walks Boone, a young man adrift in his own purposeless sea. For Whale, Boone is a focus, a sounding board, someone to act as an anchor while he sorts out what he had once so carelessly tossed away.

Although seemingly as different as night and day, Boone and Whale turn out to be very similar. Whale is merely at the end of a journey on which Boone has just taken his first steps. When they first meet, Boone allows Whale to make assumptions about his military service, only to later come clean about what really happened. His move away from his family is yet another attempt to erase the hardships of his past and become some new thing, a new creation of his own making. He is well on his way to creating his own monster.

I found the end particularly satisfying in that Boone seems to have learned from his time with Whale that you cannot pick and choose from your past. You must carry it all with you, for to repress even a painful memory can mean losing something precious right along with it.

DROOL FACTOR: If you've got a thing for Frankenstein's monster (or Fred Flintstone) Brendan Fraser's your man. However, his unquestionably well-sculpted body does nothing for me. Not even the prospect of a bag over his head helps. `Cause he still might talk and spoil the mood, ya know?

GROSS-OUT FACTOR: The fact that the Academy overlooked this excellent film in the 1998 Oscars.

STRONG CHICK FACTOR: Lynn Redgrave gives a solid performance as Whale's maid, Hanna, but I don't think her character really qualifies as a strong chick. A good role though.

Gods and Monsters is currently available on video.

-- Linda M. Najera