zondag 13 mei 2012

Dark shadows loom over Tim Burton


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:

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