|
 (051812) This
is a time of Hollywood reboots, re-imaginings and regurgitations in which the
prevalent attitude seems to be if it worked once, it can work again. There’s
also the other dynamic that has fallen into place in which it’s been deemed
necessary to drastically alter a concept from its original incarnation and
present it to the modern audience in a very different way.
For instance, 21 Jump Street went from being a cop drama to a full-blown comedy;
the ‘60s sitcom The Munsters is being turned into a horror drama on NBC. Now
there is the eighth Tim Burton/Johnny Depp collaboration, Dark Shadows.
Both Burton and Depp have professed their childhood love for the original Dark
Shadows, offering up the classic line, “I used to run home from school every day
to watch it,” repeating the mantra of so many veteran fans. They’ve also said
that this movie has been inspired by their memories and their overall love for
the show…. Now I have been a DS fan since 1968, having caught the show by
accident back then. But if anyone was to come to me and try to get me to share
my memories or impressions of the show, it would never be anywhere close to what
is being presented in theaters.
The film starts off seriously with an 18th-century flashback and ends with a
special-effects free-for-all. But in between it’s just an old favorite revamped
as a new comedy, from filmmakers who clearly prefer working in a jocular, not
jugular, vein. But that’s not what made the original “Dark Shadows” so much fun
— and Burton and Depp should know it. Yes, everything about the show was
overdone — starting with that redundancy of the title. But it was never done out
of mockery. Even though actors sometimes forgot lines or props failed to work,
the show never stooped to the low sarcasm of camp. It aimed, instead, for the
heightened emotions of melodrama. Real melodrama — and that’s what even the
lowliest of daytime shows always aspired to — embraces heightened emotions. It’s
why there’s an “opera” in “soap opera,” acknowledging the genre’s over-the-top
plots and passions. That’s changed over the years, as TV serials moved to prime
time and went for plush, tongue-in-chic camp. But real melodramas were never
meant to be played like the aren’t-they-fabulous “Desperate Housewives.” Their
models, instead, were the played-straight, truly desperate housewives of Barbara
Stanwyck weepies, Joan Crawford dramas. Except, in the case of “Dark Shadows,”
with fangs. Dark Shadows combined the elements of the Hollywood tear-jerker with
Victorian gothic literature (ie: the Bronte sisters) and added fangs.
Some of the essential ingredients are certainly there – Barnabas’ love for
Josette Du Pres and her reincarnation in the present, the curse of vampirism
placed upon him by the scorned witch Angelique, the odd Collins family,
Collinwood (which looks stunning, thanks to production designer Rick Heinrichs
and his collaboration with Burton), Dr. Julia Hoffman, David Collins and his
late mother (who isn’t a Phoenix as she was on the old show, but is definitely
supernatural in nature), etc. – but it’s all presented in such a bizarre way.
Not bizarre as in typically Burton-esque, just…. strange. As promised by the
filmmakers, things start off seriously enough in the past, but once Barnabas is
freed from his coffin, the “humor” of him adjusting to the world of 1972 kicks
into play. The idea of playing that humor is fine – one element never really
explored in any depth in the past was Barnabas’ fish out of water situation,
but, unfortunately, many of his observations here simply aren’t that funny. And
then any time the film does seem to connect with anything in a remotely serious
manner, something truly inane happens to take the audience out of that moment.
Which is so incredibly frustrating, because when you look at the central plot –
the battle between Barnabas and Angelique and the preservation of the Collins
family – there was definitely a strong enough concept there, but it’s all marred
by the determination to camp up virtually every situation.
Johnny Depp's portrayal of Barnabas is a major problem. Since Pirates of the
Caribbean, each subsequent performance has seen a once skilled actor, resorting
to over-the-top stylish eccentricities. Depp now wears more makeup and elaborate
costumes then his female co-stars. He rarely suggests any of the essence brought
to the role by the late Jonathan Frid (who is on screen with his fellow co-stars
from the original series for what amounts to about two seconds). Too often
Burton has the audience laughing at the character rather than with him. This
Barnabas, trying to find a comfortable place to sleep, does so in a closet, a
cardboard box, upside down against a curtain, etc. And when he inadvertently
steps into a shaft of sunlight, he’s the last one to notice that he’s on fire,
which is apparently okay since someone is conveniently nearby with a bucket of
water to douse him. In his battle with Angelique, at one point she projectile
vomits what looks like a stream of pea soup circa The Exorcist, which he manages
to elude. But then she does it again and he ends up completely covered in the
substance, looking like someone who’s been slimed at the Nickelodeon Kids’
Choice Awards. Depp goes for easy laughs and, as always, Burton is too taken
with the art direction to reel him in. In fact, all the men here embrace the
obvious. (As Barnabas’ shiftless henchman, Jackie Earle Haley makes the
original, John Karlen, look subtle — a truly dubious achievement).
And wait until you get to the ending. Things play out in such a way – with so
many random elements thrown into the fray – that you’re left with the feeling
that rather than attempting to preserve any sort of memory of Dark Shadows or
paving the way for future generations to enjoy the concept, there was a hidden
agenda in place to ensure the polar opposite.
Most of the cast is fine – all playing things a little eccentrically, but
effectively. Only Eva Green — locked in a two-front battle with both her accent
and her hair — fails to convince. Sneering and snarling, she comes across less
as Barnabas’ eternal frienemy Angelique than as a drag performer from some camp
revue. Sadly, that seems to be just what Burton wanted. And, as noted earlier,
the core concept works, but for anyone who thinks the problem with Dark Shadows
stems from the challenge of taking five years worth of a soap opera and
distilling it to a feature film, they couldn’t be more wrong. According to
screenwriter Seth Grahame-Smith, the earliest stages of this film had a “much
darker” screenplay by John August, but then the decision was made to lighten it
up and August’s script was discarded. As a result, the problem with this film
stems from the overall vision of Burton, Grahame-Smith and Johnny Depp, which
was clouded at best, callous and cynical at worst.
Clearly, they made the movie they wanted to make. It’s just not the movie this
“Dark Shadows” fan hoped to see.
|
