Gods and Monsters (2 stars)

Gods and Monsters was another movie I took a chance on because of an interesting cast and good reviews. Brendan Fraser got an Oscar nomination for his role, and I've been a huge fan of Ian McKellen of late. I think that was part of the reason I was so disappointed with this movie.

The movie is about the last days of film director James Whale, who is probably most well known for directing Frankenstein and Bride of Frankenstein. Whale was a homosexual (which is probably why McKellen worked so well) and becomes attracted to his gardener Clayton, played by Fraser. The two develop a friendship after Whale asks to paint a portrait of Clayton. Things become tense when James makes multiple passes at Clayton. We find out at the end of the movie that he was only doing this to incite Clayton into killing him. James no longer wanted to live because he was having severe side effects from a stroke. The movie ends with Whale killing himself and a scene set at a later date where Clayton is telling his son about how he knew the man who directed Frankenstein.

The pacing of the movie was a little too slow for me, I often found myself looking at the running time to figure how much time was left. McKellen and Fraser were excellent, but I had a hard time figuring out who I should be empathizing/identifying with and how I should feel.