Gods and Monsters

San Francisco Examiner Bob Stephens

One of the most complex and powerful literary scripts in recent times.

San Francisco Chronicle Bob Graham

An actors' feast.

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.

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.

Rolling Stone Peter Travers

Elegantly witty and haunting . . . McKellen gives the performance of his career . . . and Brendan Fraser excels.

Film.com Peter Brunette

A strange and lovely combination of cinematic nostalgia and offbeat (gay) love story.

Mr. Showbiz Kevin Maynard

A profoundly moving human drama, a quasi love story about two lost men who form an unlikely friendship.

Washington Post Rita Kempley

In a performance of enormous complexity and nuance, emotions seem to race across McKellen's face like hurrying clouds.

USA Today Susan Wloszczyna

Chances are, the more you love classic cinema, the more you will find Gods is your cup of tea.

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.

Washington Post Michael O'Sullivan

Eminently watchable thanks to strong performances from its three leads (McKellen, Redgrave, Fraser).

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.

TV Guide Maitland McDonagh

Witty and beautifully textured.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Chicago Tribune Mark Caro

An engaging character study full of lyrical images and strong performances. It's an exceedingly well-made film.

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.

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.

Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert

Gods and Monsters is not a deep or powerful film, but it is a good-hearted one.

Film.com Tom Keogh

Beyond the fantastic contrivances of Gods and Monsters, these performances are startlingly human.

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.

Salon.com Jonathan Lethem

A showcase for a uniquely sympathetic virtuoso performance by legendary stage actor Ian McKellen in an otherwise minor film.

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.

Village Voice Amy Taubin

The relationship is touching, painful, revealing, and often funny, which is true of the film as a whole as well.

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.

TNT RoughCut Brian M. Raftery

There's a great movie to be made with this story.

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.

The New Republic Stanley Kauffmann

Lynn Redgrave is nearly incomprehensible as the housekeeper with some sort of housekeeperly accent. [Dec. 14, 1998]

Slate David Edelstein

Psychologically thin, artistically flabby, and symbolically opaque.