I was looking forward to seeing this since it's a bio-pic on legendary horror director James Whale and is a movie that received great critical acclaim but I'm afraid I was slightly disappointed with it . My problem lies with the way Bill Condon's screenplay seems to have turned the characters into literary devices rather than real people . we see long discussions on homosexuals in the military , the differences in social structure on either side of the Atlantic etc and after a while I thought I was being lectured to rather than informed or entertained
Praise deservedly goes to the actors in their roles . Ian McKellen was fairly unknown at the time of this production but gives a very haunting performance and almost certainly rises above the written material while Brendan Fraser is an absolute revelation . It's astonishing to think that he became typecast as a sort of action hero in movies like THE MUMMY but here he shows what an accomplished understated actor he can be , he deserved an Oscar nomination with this performance and the performances from the actors are the best thing about GODS AND MONSTERS . Just a pity the screenplay had too much to say for itself
Praise deservedly goes to the actors in their roles . Ian McKellen was fairly unknown at the time of this production but gives a very haunting performance and almost certainly rises above the written material while Brendan Fraser is an absolute revelation . It's astonishing to think that he became typecast as a sort of action hero in movies like THE MUMMY but here he shows what an accomplished understated actor he can be , he deserved an Oscar nomination with this performance and the performances from the actors are the best thing about GODS AND MONSTERS . Just a pity the screenplay had too much to say for itself