Bram Stoker's Dracula

Bram Stoker's Dracula...1992...128 minutes...rated R...starring Gary Oldman, Winona Ryder, anthiny Hopkins, and Keanu Reeves...written by James V. Hart, based off the novel _Dracula_ by Bram Stoker...directed by Francis Ford Coppola

I shall do here what I did for the version of Frankenstein that I reviewed a few posts ago, and spare you any weird synopsis. It's Dracula...well, mostly Dracula but still recognizable as such...and if you don't know Dracula, I may have to weep yet again. I weep enough for young adults whose exposure to vampires started with the "Twilight" novels...yeah, it's kind of a cheap shot but I'll admit I'm getting weary of the supernatural romance thing.

Still, that's another post. Anyways....

I'll admit that my main problem with this movie is not the whole Dracula/Mina romance at all, nor with any of the performances that the actors give. Yes, that includes the much-maligned Keanu Reeves as Jonathan Harker...which may not be great but is nowhere near the foulness of accent that Val Kilmer perpetrates in "The Ghost and The Darkness". (Ye gods.) It certainly has little to do with the various effects and transformations that the movie has: in fact, the rat transformation moment still strikes me as very well done. No, my problem is with the title.

This isn't really *Bram Stoker's* Dracula...which honestly isn't a bad decision. A movie that tried to be closer to the book would be much less interesting to the average movie viewer. I like to think of it as the "Behind The Letters" version of Bram Stoker's Dracula, a la VH1...more sex, more intrigue, and certainly a stranger Van Helsing than previously shown in other movies. Mind you, some moments are right out of the book; the image of Dracula crawling lizard-like down the castle wall is an example. It's a big, glossy production that tries to breathe more of a modern sense into a rather dry piece of literature...as has several other pieces of fiction that have worked with this material and taken a similar bent.

Unlike the "Mary Shelley's Frankenstein", I think people will feel more for the characters...people love romances, and this movie helped create the supernatural romance movement. (Ironic that I can like this selection, but there's still some monster to Dracula here.) It's certainly worth a look if you've somehow missed it along the way. If for nothing else, you can see Tom Waits as Renfield, which is an inspired choice.

I give this version of Dracula 3.5 scary carriage drivers out of 5.