Gods and Monsters (1998)
Starring: Ian McKellan, Brendan Fraser, Lynn Redgrave
Director: Bill Condon
Synopsis: Semi-Biopic of one of cinema's unsung and unique talents
Reviewed by: Omar Khan

Last year Ian McKellan, a British stage actor enjoying a late blooming film career, received a most deserving Oscar nomination for his portrayal of James Whale in Gods and Monsters. It is amazing how an actor who looked so embarrassingly uncomfortable in the recent Stephen King adaptation, Apt Pupil, can give two such contrasting performances in such a short span of time. In this film, however, he is a joy to watch, conjuring one of the finest performances in recent times.

James Whale, the character McKellan portrays, is remembered mostly for a number of excellent films he directed back in the '30s. Some of them were major financial successes in their day and have in fact withstood the ravages of time to emerge as some of cinema's enduring classics. Amongst his best remembered work is the amazing Bride of Frankenstein and also 1931's original Frankenstein, which catapulted Boris Karloff to stardom.

Whale was an overt homosexual at a time when it was rather taboo to be so. He was kept at the periphery of Hollywood society due to his leanings and was surrounded by an aura of rumours, innuendos and gossip. His last few years were enveloped in secrecy and he lived a secluded and perfectly comfortable existence, though plagued by illness.

The manner in which Whale met his end - drowned fully clothed in his own swimming pool - remains a mystery to this day and was subject to the same type of gossip and speculation that surrounded him when he was alive. It is these last few days of his life that director Bill Condon focuses on. His account is based on the novel by Christopher Bram entitled Father of Frankenstein which speculates on what may have happened during Whale's last weeks.

In the film, Whale is a colourful old man, ravaged by illness but still appreciative of masculine beauty. He discovers a strikingly handsome, hulking monster of a man mowmg his lawns, who not only excites him but also brings him face to face with his own demons - the memory of his pathetic existence during the poverty-stricken days back in England when he was ostracised for being a sissy, and of the unbounded horror of trench warfare in World War I.

The relationship between Whale and Boone (played by current Hollywood heart throb Brendan Fraser) the gardener develops in a fascinating way. Though utterly straight, Boone is drawn to the old man, not in a sexual way, but by an indefinable magnetism. It could be pity for the fading old man or perhaps Boone too needed a real friend. Whale, meanwhile, is utterly consumed by Boone's beauty.

The film is in effect a loving biopic of a perhaps great director and a multi-faceted and talented man whose sexuality and horrific experiences during the Great War were to shape his most brilliant work. A poignant and beautifully acted film.