Movie Breakdown: Lisa Frankenstein

Pre-Screening Stance:

Lisa Frankenstein has a lot of notable names behind it. The film is Zelda Williams’ feature-length directorial debut, it was written by Diablo Cody, and it stars the likes of Kathryn Newton, Carla Gugino, and Cole Sprouse. I’m in.

Post-Screening Ramble:

I had a great time with Lisa Frankenstein, but it’s not a film that holds together particularly well if you start picking at it. The story is this – Lisa (Kathryn Newton) is the black sheep of her family, which mostly just means she likes to spend her spare time hanging out in an abandoned cemetery. After wishing to be with the man buried beneath her favorite headstone, he (Cole Sprouse) comes to life and joins her. Neat! Except for the fact that he’s pretty much just a reanimated corpse (goopy, missing parts, etc) and that his presence isn’t exactly what Lisa was wishing for. Still, she goes about helping him return to his former glory and he goes about helping her come out of her shell. Oh, and there’s a bit of murder along the way.

The way to enjoy Lisa Frankenstein is to just buy what it’s selling and not think about it at all because even if you toss out the part where a corpse is brought back to life, the movie really doesn’t ever make much sense. What’s there though is good fun that offers up plenty of laughs, 80s throwbacks, and just enough horror to give the film a twisted edge. Newton should be celebrated since she somehow manages to present Lisa as endearing (when she’s really kind of unlikable), but I think the actual star of the show is Sprouse – he absolutely does a fantastic job with the physical part of the performance required for his mute creature. Not sure the movie would be near as entertaining as it is without him groaning and bumbling around in a weirdly charming manner.

Lisa Frankenstein isn’t going to win any awards, but it’s a fun film. You should see it when it hits theaters tomorrow, February 9.

One Last Thought:

I had no idea that Cole Sprouse (along with his identical twin brother Dylan) played the little boy Julian in Adam Sandler’s Big Daddy. Side note, it’s interesting to see how different the career paths for Cole and Dylan have been – the former has clearly seen more success. This must make for fun banter at family functions.