Dark
Shadows:
Rating: ***/*****, or 6/10
Sometimes a good notion backfires,
despite the right ingredients being present. In the case of Dark
Shadows, Tim Burton's latest, the main problem is these
ingredients have become stale and somewhat hard to swallow. Burton
presents us with yet another one of his specialty dishes, a typically
off-beat Gothic horror comedy, but it tastes old and mushy because it
offers little surprises. Burton's dark and brooding yet also
satirical and good spirited style has finally come to the point where
it feels it has reached its expiration date, after already
disappointing us two years ago with Alice in Wonderland. The
situation is all the more grave considering the letdown revolves
around a project Burton claims to have great affinity for, namely his
re-imagining of the classic cult TV show Dark Shadows, which
ran for well over a whopping 1,200 episodes from 1966 till 1971. The
strange supernatural occurrences of the Collins family, involving
vampires, werewolves, witches and the likes, sounds exactly like
Burton's cup of tea, and therein lies part of the problem, since
Burton apparently has become predictable, allowing his style to
dictate his projects for him.
Dark Shadows sees the eighth
collaboration between Burton and his personal muse Johnny Depp (for
those of you who must know, the previous joint ventures, in
chronological order of succession, were Edward Scissorhands
(1990), Ed Wood (1994), Sleepy Hollow (1999), Charlie
and the Chocolate Factory (2005), Corpse Bride (2005),
Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (2007) and the
above mentioned Alice in Wonderland (2010)), which also comes
as no surprise, since the film has a wonderfully bizarre character
uncomfortable with his life and the people around him for a
protagonist, and Depp has shown to excel at playing such characters,
usually to the delight of the audience. The role of vampire Barnabas
Collins, who has spend nearly 200 years buried in a coffin and
finally awakens in 1972, setting off in an attempt to restore his
family's position, as such seems tailor made for Depp. After Barnabas
and his family have been cursed by a witch who strongly loved the
decent man he used to be, the bloodsucker finds himself locked away
into the grave for two centuries, only to be accidentally awakened by
a construction crew. Barnabas returns to his former home, the grand
Collinwood Manor from which his father used to run a fishing empire
along the Maine coast, only to find it in a state of decay with his
family decimated to a number of only four, the family fortune
seemingly lost. He takes it upon himself to protect his remaining
relatives from the forces that have plagued them for centuries, and
vows to return the family business to its former glory. Alas,
Angelique, the witch that turned Barnabas vampire so long ago (played
by a deliciously vile Eva Green, who energetically throws herself
into the role and obviously likes the bitchy character a lot) has
since expanded her ambitions from mere witchcraft to the realm of
economics, having taken over the Collins' family business, making her
a successful businesswoman and respected pillar of the community, so
the witch and the vampire find themselves at odds once more as the
latter tries to win back what was once his.
In this
struggle, Barnabas is backed by the Collins matriarch Elizabeth
(Michelle Pfeiffer, a woman of stature who's not afraid to make
sleazy deals to keep her family together), despised by her teen
daughter Carolyn (Chloë Grace Moretz nails this grumpy character
perfectly, and fortunately happens to be her exact age as a bonus),
distrusted by Elizabeth's brother Roger (Johnny Lee Miller playing
the family scumbag successfully) and revered by Roger's son David
(the young newcomer Gulliver McGrath), a boy who sees his dead
mother's ghost. Thrown into this mix are the groundskeeper Willie
(Jackie Earle Haley, ever creepy), David's new private teacher Vicky
(the beautiful Bella Heathcote playing the girl with the biggest
secret of the bunch) and the family psychiatrist and regular drunk
Dr. Hoffman, in which we recognize Burton's other muse, his fiancé
Helena Bonham Carter, who co-starred in six of his films before this
one, making us wonder just who Burton actually loves more, Depp or
the woman he means to marry. At least Barnabas does not stand alone,
but every member of his entourage has demons all their own, some
merely psychological, others all too real, adding to his existing
troubles. Plus he also has to deal with the strange new world of the
1970s, its technological advancements (like cars and televsion sets)
and cultural changes (including women's lib and youth subcultures)
alike, which turns out to be encompassing the film's most memorable
and hilarious moments, but unfortunately these get underexposed in
favour of the rather bland family story line and the battle against
the wicked witch.
Depp once again does his usual thing,
portraying Barnabas as a soul out of time who must come to terms with
a much changed world and unite his family against the evil witch that
has sought to destroy them, but it's less than a stellar piece of
acting simply because it all feels so familiar, as if we've seen this
performance often before, with only slight variations every time.
Fortunately Depp is not the only character in this film, though of
course he is supposed to be the biggest draw for the general
audience. Dark Shadows is seemingly blessed with a host of
characters, each with his or her own issues and secrets. Warning!
Here be spoilers! However, herein lies yet another problem,
since the film's plot comes with so many characters most of them do
not get a good chance to shine and remain poorly underdeveloped,
despite personal afflictions that haunt them and have impact on the
whole family struggle for survival. For one thing, Carolyn turns out
to be a werewolf, but this is revealed only in the climactic end
battle with Angelique, at which point it's too late in the film to be
of narrative use other than to provide some more creature action and
plot confusion. Similarly, Vicky is supposedly the reincarnation of
Barnabas' dead wife Josette, but the exact how-and-why to this
remains severely underexplained, though it does force a romantic
subplot on the movie's overall story, and even a love triangle of
sorts, since Barnabas still feels enough for his tormenter Angelique
to give into her seductions, resulting into a wild night of carnal
pleasure. Similarly, David talks to his dead mother, Roger plans to
run off with the family treasure Barnabas has exposed and Dr. Hoffman
infuses herself with Barnabas' blood in a scheme to live forever.
Each character comes with story baggage, much of which just won't fit
in the luggage compartment of the train that is Dark Shadows
as it moves onward to its destination, and many things get left
behind along the way.
This is all the more disappointing
considering the actors do a good job portraying their characters and
we would have liked to have seen them be put to more satisfying use:
it would not have been a bad idea if Burton and screenwriter Seth
Grahame-Smith – who wrote the novel Abraham Lincoln: Vampire
Hunter, the movie adapatation of which will reach theatres in
August of this year, so 2012 isn't done with vampire movies just yet
– would have scrapped a few of these subplots and twists in favour
of the overall feel of a coherent story line. The subplots may have
been moments of tease designed to be fleshed out in a potential Dark
Shadows sequel, but on their own they don't work to the advantage
of this movie on own. Also, the many characters and their separate
plot lines make it seem we've watched a compilation of the first 200
episodes of the original television show.
Despite the many downsides to the film,
most of which result in a messy overall plot, there's also things to
enjoy in Dark Shadows. The film knows many a comical note,
mainly in the moments Barnabas is faced with the vast differences
between his own era and the swinging Seventies. So he's confronted by
a huge McDonald's logo at the site of his resurrection, he mistakes
his own grand-grand-etc. niece for a 'lady of the evening' due to her
loose way of dressing, and he sits down for a philosophical debate
about love with a group of hippies, which he brutally kills
afterwards in his physical need for human blood (he's a vampire after
all). Also of great joy are the soapy love/hate moments between him
and Angelique, culminating in a passionate night of love making that
does not stay confined to the bed but takes place all over the room,
including the walls and the ceiling, after which Barnabas remarks
this was 'a regrettable turn of events' as they sit in a totally
wrecked room at the end of their sexual outburst. It's moments like
these that provide for the most entertaining part of the film, and
certainly the most memorable, considering the rest of the film proves
all too forgetful afterwards. Unfortunately, they only make the film
half decent, instead of actually good, a level the movie sadly does
not reach, also in part to the unsatisfactory way the film seems to
deliver its message that family should stick together no matter how
odd some of its members are. If that's so, how come Roger ran off
with the money, the house got burned down and the locals think the
Collins family is just a bunch of sinister freaks? Sure, the evil has
been vanquished, but it's a far cry from a happy end to conclude this
motion picture with.
After seven projects working with the
same director, usually in the same genre and the same visual style,
the fact is the combination Burton/Depp has really gotten worn out
and stale, indicating both men should probably take a long break from
each other and meet some new people to escape the dreary routine
they've succumbed to. Though Burton has used a grotesque style all
his own that made him Hollywood's leading auteur, by now it
has proven to be a huge 'been there, done that', resulting in
disappointing films that only see a continuation of his style instead
of some form of improvement upon it. Turning to a new genre
altogether could be a solution to the routine Burton seems stuck in.
Obviously, the director himself feels differently, since he's not
done with family oriented Gothic horror this year: come October his
latest stop motion piece Frankenweenie will be released. It
may use a different format, but seems overall typically Burtonesque.
At least it doesn't star Johnny Depp, maybe that will prove to be
enough of a change this time...
And watch the trailer here:
