First of all, it deviates far from Mary Shelley's novel in many details. A straightforward retelling of it would be worthwhile on its own although I think Kenneth Branagh's version a few years back did that well. You have read it, right? It is a Romantic reputation of Enlightenment confidence in scientific rationalism, arguing that there is more to living creatures than bags of chemical reactions. I read it because while doing my MA in History, my wife was doing her MA in British Literature. I read many of her assigned novels as she did.
The cinematography is gobsmacking. Lots of interesting uses of color for various themes. Awesome costumes and sets. The Arctic which is the framing location in both book and film is marvelous. It is grisly in places. As the Monster says at one point, "I was born of a charnel house."
It has been years since I read it but the Monster learnis to read in a Swiss cabin from Genesis and Paradise Lost and i do not think that was in the book. This scene ends up with a profoundly Christian observation from the old blind guy in the house. The entire set of ideas of Creation and the soul will cause some serious conversation and confusion in some audiences.
I really enjoyed it.
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