first for each performance from the lead roles, especially for Brendan Fraser. than, for the force of story. not the least, for splendid job of Lynn Redgrave. a film who use biographic details for a subtle reflection about great universal themes. the flash backs, the dialogues, the details and the precise portrait of humanity are the great virtues of a magnificent trip in essence of fears, illusions, expectations , shadows of the past. to escape from yourself - that is the axis of a film who gives few interesting answers to the old problem of meaning of life. a film about importance of truth. and about role of a meeting. about different forms of confession and legacy. delicate and powerful. poetic in bitter form. and, so, convincing. a director, an old lady and a young gardener.crumbs of past. as bricks from a strange bridge between past and present.

This 1998 movie was made for only a little over 3 million dollars----which is peanuts by any standards..of to-day. Yet, it is pretty excellent. Ian McKellen is simply brilliant as retired movie director James Whale (Highly successful movie director of the 1930s) The choice of Brendan Fraser (Clayton Boone) as the gardener was a master stroke. Whale sees him as another of his "monsters !!"Whale and Boone become "friends", but we are robbed of any sexual tension between the two.... (Whale is a homo-sexual) but the Boone character is too rigidly fixed...in all his views. Actually, the Boone character never really existed...so I guess its academic. This is McKellen at his very best (why no Oscar .?) and its simply great to watch a master craftsman do his thing. Whale directed Frankenstien and The Bride of Frankenstien (and half a dozen other "hits") during his hey-day in the 1930s. In this hugely under-rated movie it is 1957 and Whales health is declining. A great insight into those old days, and a very good movie.

"Gods and Monsters" is the beautifully acted and somewhat fictionalized story of director James Whale (Ian McKellan) as he faces the end of his life. The openly gay Whale was the director of some of the great horror films: Frankenstein, Bride of Frankenstein, The Invisible Man, and The Old Dark House, as well as the definitive Showboat, and one of my favorites, the bizarre Remember Last Night? (which no one in the movie does, by the way). After a debacle over the film The Road Back, his studio thrust him into directing B movies, and by 1941, his career was over. After that, Whale developed a love of painting and directed in theater, where he had started in the '20s.The film begins in 1957, the last year of Whale's life, after he has suffered a series of strokes. In the movie, his only companion is his housekeeper (Lynn Redgrave). (In real life, he was living with the much younger Pierre Foegel, whom he had met in France.) Faced with diminishing mental faculties and unwanted flashbacks from his past, Whale develops a sometimes uneasy friendship with his gardener, Clayton Boone (Brendan Fraser). He asks Clayton to pose for him, and while Clayton does, Whale pours his heart out to him. Some of it is too much for the straight Clay, but over time, the two men bond. Each gets something from the other. But Whale will ultimately want something astounding from his new friend.This a complex film, well directed and written by Bill Condon, who adapted the novel The Father of Frankenstein by Christopher Bram. Whale attempts to create his own Frankenstein monster, in a sense, in Clay, and the stunning images near the end of the film which take place during Clay's dream sequence point this up. The film also demonstrates the loneliness and deterioration of old age, as well as the fear that goes along with it.The cast is nothing short of magnificent, with phenomenal performances by the three leads: McKellan, Fraser, and Redgrave. The late, always excellent David Dukes plays David Lewis, Whale's ex-lover and still friend; Jack Betts and Rosalind Ayres are well made up and vocally correct as Boris Karloff and Elsa Lanchester, respectively.Gods and Monsters is a sometimes dark, always thought-provoking film about old age, taking stock at the end of life, and the gods and monsters within each one of us.

Gods and Monsters is an independent movie in the best sense of the word, in that it really engenders thought and emotion, and on many tracks simultaneously.The movie is a parable on the end of life, and the desperate need for love when all one has is memories. By extension, its about the importance of friendship as a support when romantic love is not available. In addition, the film is one of the frankest looks at homosexuality I've ever seen, dealing with the dynamics of a young straight man dealing with a gay man whom he wants to befriend, and an old gay man who has nostalgia both for a life of hedonism and a young true love lost, in the most terrible of circumstances.The movie also covers the notion of war, gallows humor, and the way they instructed Whale and his Frankenstein movies. All in all, its amazing the multiple intents of this film, but they're all woven together into a tight script derived from a fictionalized account of Whale's last days (the author gives his full blessing in the DVD special features).I'm surprised I missed this film in 1998, especially with the incredible cast. I expected a low-budget docudrama, possibly campy, moderately engaging, but its far more than that. The topic of homosexuality is dealt with extremely frankly, but lovingly and honestly, while not playing it safe either. It's a tribute to the director that the plot line of Whale's sex life opens briskly, but then illustrates the greater point that this is a man with a spirited past who is breaking down. Gay or not gay, his sexuality was part of him being alive, and its role as both recreational fun, and deep love, are both acknowledged.McKellan proves why he gets the raves, not just covering the gamut of wit, sadness, irritation and anger, but nailing the idiosyncrasies of a man hallucinating with nostalgia, and steadily losing his mental faculties.Redgrave creates a character close to a cartoon, but she does not waver from that character's reality, and is somehow instantly inviting.Fraser is convincing as both the attractive draw to McKellen, but also the lost young man, and the empathetic innocent who just wants to find something tangible in life.In the midst of all this, they give tribute to the amazing story of Frankenstein, and the film flashbacks are where the film loses some balance. The turn of McKellen/Whale being haunted by his own creation, his life, is very thought-provoking. The story McKellen gives about his young male lover dying in the trenches and it becoming a dark joke for everyone is particularly heart-breaking. In a sense, the dark humor that was supposed to help with the monster of war became the monster in and of itself. As convoluted as this may seem, it actually really provoked me to think deeper about the entire Frankenstein parable, which is, of course, a masterpiece of story and character.Finally, the film makes a very compelling point about the critical importance of friendship and human contact. You get a lot in 106 mins, and the climax is purely emotional. Fantastic.