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Gods and Monsters
Lions Gate Films Inc.
FILM:
MPAA RATING: R for sexual material and language
Starring
Ian McKellen,
Brendan Fraser,
Lynn Redgrave,
Lolita Davidovich,
and
David Dukes
Hollywood history comes to life in this tale of the last days of Frankenstein director James Whale (McKellen). Long forgotten by the studios, Whale has retired to pursue painting and a life of leisure. Gods and Monsters explores his final fascination with a handsome gardener, Clayton Boone (Fraser). (Lions Gate Films)
| GENRE(S): |
Drama
|
| WRITTEN BY: |
Christopher Bram (novel Father of Frankenstein)
Bill Condon
|
| DIRECTED BY: |
Bill Condon
|
| RELEASE DATE: |
DVD: June 8, 1999
Video: June 8, 1999
Theatrical: November 4, 1998
|
| RUNNING TIME: |
105 minutes, BW / Color |
| ORIGIN: |
USA |
All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...
100
San Francisco Examiner
Bob Stephens
One of the most complex and powerful literary scripts in recent times.
100
San Francisco Chronicle
Bob Graham
An actors' feast.
100
Portland Oregonian
Shawn Levy
The film, built around McKellen's magnificent performance, is a sleek and deceptively artful work, a bio-pic that manages to encompass the whole of a man's rich life by concentrating solely on the final months of it.
100
Entertainment Weekly
Lisa Schwarzbaum
Achieves its exquisite tension--deepening beautifully from a "Death in Venice" setup to an imaginative meditation, on art and life, of uncommon sensitivity.
90
Rolling Stone
Peter Travers
Elegantly witty and haunting . . . McKellen gives the performance of his career . . . and Brendan Fraser excels.
90
Film.com
Peter Brunette
A strange and lovely combination of cinematic nostalgia and offbeat (gay) love story.
90
Mr. Showbiz
Kevin Maynard
A profoundly moving human drama, a quasi love story about two lost men who form an unlikely friendship.
90
Washington Post
Rita Kempley
In a performance of enormous complexity and nuance, emotions seem to race across McKellen's face like hurrying clouds.
88
USA Today
Susan Wloszczyna
Chances are, the more you love classic cinema, the more you will find Gods is your cup of tea.
88
New York Daily News
Elizabeth Weitzman
It has the most beautiful ending of any American film in years, a coda of reconciliation and remembrance set in a gentle L.A. rain.
80
Washington Post
Michael O'Sullivan
Eminently watchable thanks to strong performances from its three leads (McKellen, Redgrave, Fraser).
80
Los Angeles Times
Kenneth Turan
There are so many colors to McKellen's performance, so many diverse emotions fleetingly play on his face, that resisting his art is out of the question. Better work by an actor will not be seen this year.
80
TV Guide
Maitland McDonagh
Witty and beautifully textured.
80
The New York Times
Elvis Mitchell
What especially elevates it is the razor-sharp cleverness of McKellen's performance, which brings unusual fullness and feeling to a most unusual man.
80
Dallas Observer
David Ehrenstein
This chamber drama is a deeply felt and oddly moving reverie on death and the process of taking stock of one's life.
80
Variety
Dennis Harvey
Doesn’t always convince, particularly in the last lap. But it’s an engrossing, unusual, imaginatively executed bit of psychological gamesmanship nonetheless.
80
LA Weekly
Manohla Dargis
Curiously, one of the film's stranger effects is that it's more convincing as a meditation on desire and Hollywood than as a biographical exploration.
78
Austin Chronicle
Marjorie Baumgarten
So much of the credit must be laid at the feet of Ian McKellen, whose portrait of Whale is a study in acting excellence.
75
Chicago Tribune
Mark Caro
An engaging character study full of lyrical images and strong performances. It's an exceedingly well-made film.
75
Christian Science Monitor
David Sterritt
Although the film doesn't probe Whale's personality as deeply as it might, the acting is excellent and movie buffs will enjoy its behind-the-scenes references and nostalgic film clips.
75
ReelViews
James Berardinelli
A rich, multi- layered portrait of a director from Hollywood's Golden Age whose own life was as interesting as any of his movies.
75
Chicago Sun-Times
Roger Ebert
Gods and Monsters is not a deep or powerful film, but it is a good-hearted one.
70
Film.com
Tom Keogh
Beyond the fantastic contrivances of Gods and Monsters, these performances are startlingly human.
70
The Onion (A.V. Club)
Keith Phipps
While McKellen's sharp performance provides the main attraction, the film wouldn't work without both Fraser, who brings something extra to a character who could easily have been a mere lunk, and director Bill Condon's careful integration of larger themes.
70
Salon.com
Jonathan Lethem
A showcase for a uniquely sympathetic virtuoso performance by legendary stage actor Ian McKellen in an otherwise minor film.
70
Newsweek
Andrea C. Basora
Condon's obvious attempts to draw parallels between Whale's life and his work tend to be heavy-handed, and detract from an otherwise intriguing film.
70
Village Voice
Amy Taubin
The relationship is touching, painful, revealing, and often funny, which is true of the film as a whole as well.
63
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)
Liam Lacey
As a portrait of a deliciously eccentric individual, Gods and Monsters features a vivid performance from Ian McKellen that makes you think not of James Whale but of Ian McKellen.
55
TNT RoughCut
Brian M. Raftery
There's a great movie to be made with this story.
50
Chicago Reader
Jonathan Rosenbaum
I'm too big a fan of director James Whale (1896-1957) to take a film about him lightly, and I'm afraid this speculative 1998 movie about his last days won't do.
50
The New Republic
Stanley Kauffmann
Lynn Redgrave is nearly incomprehensible as the housekeeper with some sort of housekeeperly accent. [Dec. 14, 1998]
30
Slate
David Edelstein
Psychologically thin, artistically flabby, and symbolically opaque.
 The average user rating for this movie is 8.2 (out of 10) based on 5 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.
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