Ni dieux ni démons

Sometimes, great quality films don't take too much money to make and don't require a lot of star power. Here, we have Sir Ian McKellen CH KBE CBE in an Oscar nominated performance as the late great horror director, James Whale, who was also gay, artistic, and a genius. The film is based on a fictional novel about his life towards the end. In this film, James Whale is elderly and frail who encounters a handsome gardener, Clayton Boone (played wonderfully by Brendan Fraser in his best performance to date or since). Ian McKellen masters the role of the late director. They form an unlikely friendship. Clayton is oblivious to Whale's homosexuality or his film history at first. They become unlikely friends during their conversations. Whale knows his time is running out. The title comes from a line in his famous film, "Frankenstein." I don't care much for James Whale as a person. He seems too self-involved and cruel to his interviewer. The film also carries a Golden Globe winning performance from the late Lynn Redgrave OBE as his Hungarian Catholic housekeeper, Hanna. She is unforgettable in this role and her loses herself in developing her to be believable. Hanna is still devoted to Whale despite his sexual orientation. Still, the film is a character study. I loved the moment where Whale is reunited with Elsa Lancaster and Boris Karloff who was the Bride and Frankenstein at the Garden Party.

"Gods and Monsters" wore me out. It was so uncomfortable watching James Whale, a man of great intellect and pride, facing the hand that the stroke and his developing dementia has dealt him. He is old and is grasping at the disappearing straws of his sexual identity. He's seen as a sinner by his patient, loyal, and harshly loving housekeeper. He is becoming pathetic and he knows it. He minimalizes his accomplishments and really sees only betrayal. Flattery gets no-one anywhere. A man of infinite genius grabs for a platonic sexual encounter. All this does for him is brings up the monsters within himself, memories of war and lost love. Brendan Fraser is quite good and Ian McKellen is superb. His elusive nature and "keep-em-guessing" responses to simple conversation would drive most of us crazy. But we would stay for the stories.

Gods and Monsters is in my opinion one of the cinema treats of the year if not one of the best of this decade. Disappointed by a visit to the Mod Squad, I visited ‘Gods' to cleanse my palate. It was enchanting from it's sensitive commencement to an emotional conclusion. It boasts a resonant story which holds it's audience entranced. The script adaptation left no scene lacking significance. Characters are proficiently crafted. Equally substantial, Bill Condon's perceptive Direction was facile and lucid. A mixture of colour and black and white imagery was deftly handled as was the juxtaposition of time person and place in the remembered and imagined sequences. Ian McKellen was the consummate performer as fading Hollywood screen Director James Whale enfeebled by a succession of strokes. The film is further enhanced by a splendid Award winning portrayal of the loyal house maid Hannah by Lyn Redgrave. I was stunned by 'The Mummy's' and 'Blast from the Past's' Brendan Fraser as the hapless and perplexed yardman Clayton Boone who is befriended by James Whale. Who would have thought that such a sensitive and in touch performance could come from the Encino Man. Both McKellen and Fraser team up in some empowering closing scenes. Here one character sees mirrored in the other character's disposition his own fears and emotions. Every facet of Gods and Monsters is admirable. Miss this and you have neglected a very special motion picture.

Any film that has won over 30 awards must be respected. It is indeed a very good film, although the story line is deep and psychologically heavy so it is not everyone's cup of tea (or "everyone's tea cup" as the foreign maid played by Lynn Redgrave said in the film). Due credit must be given for a credible script and the story itself, based on truth although fictionalized as per the gardener's relationship with director Whale.

Brendan Fraser proves himself to be an excellent actor. We will no doubt see a lot more of him in leading roles.

Unbelievable that best-actor-Oscar-winner Ian McKellen was only 59 years old. He must be a smoker!

If you are a serious film buff, see it. It has lots of depth.

Truth be told, it's not easy to write a film review as disconnected as I am from the underlying inspirations and principals of the movie in tow: Gods and Monsters. I knew little about James Whale and the Frankenstein franchise, possessed virtually zilch experience with Bill Condon (aside from the trivial baggage that his previous _and first_ feature film was the Direct-To-Oblivion sequel to the Scariest-Movie-Of-All-Time-When-I-Was-Fourteen, Candyman.), and unceremoniously avoided anything to do with Brendan Fraser. So, there's not much I can say about historical accuracy, era juxtapositions, or tour-de-force performances. All I know comes from the ninety-eight or so minutes I had with the film.

Which were pretty splendid, to say the least. What more, I was pleased by how little the film seemed to hit me over the head. Not with a lengthy diatribe over the political progressions of societal acceptance of diverse sexual orientations, not with any sort of disgusted expose of Hollywood's miscreants. Instead, I found a minimal but simplistically acceptable plot moved along by wonderful acting, vivid portrayals of what it's really like, beneath the typical distractions, gimmicks, and veils, to be a human being. Ian McKellan astounded me. Fact or fiction, he wasn't necessarily James Whale, but a complicated, reserved, and often misunderstood director who found a glimmer of intrigue and desire for his new gardener, Clayton Boone, played impeccably by Brendan Fraser. From their initial meeting with Whale indulging in staring at Boone hard-driving an edger, I was struck by a remarkable sense of kinship between the two, which only got better as the film unfolded. And, with Hanna--the third vertice of the bizarre love triangle--the edgy buffer between the men, I felt incredibly comfortable just watching three very different people open up to each other and to me. The irony of the title, Gods and Monsters, is that whether someone or something is considered a 'God' or 'Monster' is largely due to perception...human perception. We invent our gods and our monsters daily, and they are usually people we know, love, hate, or admire. I spent a very good ninety-eight minutes, mostly from being in the company of those three fellow humans.