1764: A young man named Barnabas Collins, wealthy heir to a New England fishing company, is transformed into a hideous vampire by the jealous witch, Angelique. Her lust was met with scorn as the young Barnabas slighted her affections for a young blonde maiden, and when she could not earn his love after killing his parents and his bride-to-be, after his horrible form would not leave him complacent with Angelique, she turned the town against him and buried him in the earth.
1972: An unfortunate group of construction workers dig up Barnabas's coffin and meet an untimely death. The vampire suddenly finds himself in a time of Chevrolet's and troll dolls, but returns to his mansion, Collinwood, to restore his family's honor.
Tim Burton's eighth collaboration with Johnny Depp has the actor sporting pointed ears, chunky spiked hair, a pallid complexion and ghoulish fingers. Depp seems right at home in his new skin, giving one of his trademark, chameleon performances. With an arched posture, perfect deadpan and just the right amount of charm his Barnabas is hilarious is his confused navigations through a modern world. But then Depp has always been the right actor for Burton, or rather Burton has always been the right director for Depp. Creating fantastic worlds for him, Depp always manages to get lost in his cartoonish characters, relishing in their oddities.
Apart from his sparkling performance there is unfortunately not much else being offered in this film.
I must admit to never having seen the 70's soap from which this film was based, but if it was anything like the film then I am glad to have not.
Barnabas comes home to find Collinwood in a state of disrepair, inhabited by the last remaining members of the Collins family, their loyal staff of two and one Dr. Hoffman, there to look after the young David who has been fantasizing about seeing the ghost of his dead mother. Also there is a new employed young governess named Victoria who looks astonishingly like Barnabas's dead love. Equally puzzled by him and he is of them, Barnabas must earn their trust before pledging himself to rebuilding the family business which has been all but destroyed by the immortal Angelique.
After a fantastic opening sequence where Barnabas explains his past, which is equally beautiful and gruesome, I had high hopes for this film. Other than "Sweeney Todd", Burton's last few endeavors have been general misses with aesthetics put ahead of character development and strong narratives. The film seemed ready to take a macabre, moody approach inflected with slight moments of bemusing humor, but about a third of the way in that seemed to putter out.
Even with a terrific cast including Michelle Pfeiffer, Helena Bonham Carter, Chloe Grace Loretz and a great performance by the relatively unknown Eva Green as the witch, this film had incredible troubles trying to determine what it was about. I was left confused through most of it by its careless tones, its large amount of supporting characters who seemed to drift in and out without any real purpose, and by the lack of pathos from any of the actors. The only real force to cling on to was Depp, and his character wasn't even written strong enough to feel secure in doing that.
Again, this was one of those typical Burton films in which a lack of direction is masked by beautiful visuals and campy performances. The film is like Collinwood: grand, gothic, beautifully twisted. But on the inside it's empty, worn down, covered in cobwebs and filled with the same people that there have always been.
It did have its moments. Depp was able to squeeze a few genuine laughs from the audience (my favorite was an encounter with a lava lamp which he equated to a "pulsating blood-urn") and there were times where the effects and the atmosphere made it quite eerie. But on whole--I love and hate myself for writing this--the film had no bite. It felt that Burton wanted to make a gothic horror film, and it also felt he wanted to make a family-friendly vampire flick. Instead he chose the middle path and created a grey, emotionless mess.
1.5/4
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