This movie is like a dark romantic/erotic painting; full of shadows and steam. It's a masterpiece by the legendary director Francis Ford Coppola whereby his son Roman Coppola was also on board as the visual effects director. The story remains faithful to the one in the book by the same name that was written by Bram Stoker. In my opinion it does justice to the whole vampire genre; nothing embarrassing here.
A young lawyer Jonathan Harper (Keanu Reeves), living his fiancé Mina Murray (Winona Ryder) at home goes on an assignment to a castle in Transylvania to meet a very strange man Count Dracula (Gary Oldman) who in fact is an immortal blood thirsty vampire and he lives among beautiful erotic creatures in this scary place. Jonathan carries a photograph of Mina with him which the scary host notices; she is a dead ringer for Dracula's wife Elisabeta from ages ago; he must find her. His romance is deadly for those who may stand in the way. He may be romantic but he is still a blood sucking vampire. Can he be stopped and who would even dare? Perhaps Professor Abraham Van Helsing (Anthony Hopkins).
Editing is good; there are no weird gaps and inconsistencies that mess with the general flow of the movie.
Actors and actresses are doing a good job. In those days, as much as I liked Winona Ryder, I always found the characters she portrayed, or perhaps her acting style, a bit too fragile. But in this movie it works perfectly. Same can be said for Keanu Reeves; he always had this confused but honest young man thing going on which is exactly what this movie was calling for.
There are some short appearances in this movie to look out for as well; by the likes of Tom Waits, Sadie Frost, Monica Bellucci.
Compared to his earlier movies, Dracula was something quite different for the director Francis Ford Coppola and apparently the huge success that it brought helped him pay his debt that was due to his previous artistic adventures.
My memory of this movie is:
I remember sitting in the dark of movie theater not knowing exactly what to expect. I liked Vampire movies in general but they didn't quite go beyond beyond being quick scare vehicles and means to drench my Gothic thirst. I liked Winona Ryder a lot and I always trusted Anthony Hopkins with any role after seeing his performance in chilling "Silence of the Lambs"(1991) and romantic "84 Charing Cross Road" (1987) movies. When Dracula started, I knew I was watching something special. There are movies that make you feel like a history is being written right before your eyes. Yes, it's true, you are there to watch the current release, but you know that this movie is going to be remembered even several decades later from now, like "Pulp Fiction"(1994) for example, if for nothing else for being such a huge entity of visuals. Then again, who remembers "Water World" (1995), right?
G.R.Senn
