Contributor: Henry T.
Story by John August and Seth Grahame-Smith
Screenplay by Seth Grahame-Smith
Directed by Tim Burton
I came out of “Dark Shadows” feeling like I didn’t quite get a grip on what Tim Burton was telling me. The movie is a mish-mash of so many genres and movie types that it never achieves liftoff when it’s stuck counting down to launch. It doesn’t work as a whole, and has problems with tonal consistency. Not to mention plot consistency as well.
At one point, it’s a gothic horror love story (something Burton is quite familiar with). Then it becomes a fish-out-of-water comedy. It could even sub for a supernatural thriller in some parts. That makes it entertaining, for the most part. The rest of it is either weird or off-kilter or very puzzling. In fact, the film picked a very strange point at which to end and get into the end credits roll. At least I enjoyed the music selection, which was eclectic, but easily the most consistent part of the film. It fit with the era being depicted. Should the principals involved in the film had followed the path set by the musical song selections, I think the film would have turned out much better than it did.
The film begins in the 18th century, as Barnabas Collins (Johnny Depp) narrates his family’s immigration from England to the New World. His rich family creates an entire town from the ground up and names it Collinsport. The town comes complete with the Collins family manor, Collinwood. Barnabas falls in love during his formative years with a beautiful servant girl named Josette (Bella Heathcote) and ignores another servant who was in love with him in Angelique (Eva Green). So Angelique, who is revealed to be a secret witch, casts a spell on the two lovebirds for eternity.
The curse causes Josette to throw herself off a cliff to her death, with Barnabas following. Angelique curses Barnabas to be a vampire for all of his days. Barnabas remains buried for 200 years until he emerges in Collinsport of 1972. Josette has now taken the identity of Victoria Winters, Angelique is now a fisheries businesswoman (her sorcery keeps her ageless), and what remains of the Collins family (all four of them) reside in Collinwood with an uncaring caretaker (Jackie Earle Haley) and a perpetually drunk psychiatrist (Helena Bonham Carter). Barnabas comes back to reclaim his family fortune, make Collinsport thrive again, and get rid of the curse that has been haunting him for two centuries.
That’s pretty much it for the plot. There’s no real driving force present in the movie to go forward. They could have made the restoration of both Collinwood and Collinsport more of a trial for Barnabas to get his redemption in some way. But Tim Burton doesn’t seem overly concerned with that. The movie proceeds with such brevity through a lot of scenes that the result becomes a whiplash effect. A moment with a ghost is taken really seriously, then comes the next scene where Burton goes for straight comedy and sight gags. Granted, some of the sight gags are very good (Barnabas mistakes the golden arches of McDonald’s for a creation of the Devil; He thinks Karen Carpenter, the singer, is a sorceress; He calls the Scooby-Doo cartoon “a very silly play”), but there’s never any sure footing from scene to scene.
You’ll get some good laughs at one moment, then Burton remembers that he has to serve the love story so the film returns there, where it proceeds to fall dead. The love story between Barnabas and Victoria lacks juice. We never feel a connection between the two, probably because Victoria is emotionally damaged and distant and Barnabas is too busy trying to build the family empire back up. Depp plays Barnabas as a stiff, mannered Victorian-era English vampire, and I get the sense he can play this kind of role in his sleep, so it’s not surprising that there would be no chemistry between the two of them. In fact, he has more chemistry with Eva Green, who plays Angelique so over-the-top that it feels like she’s in a different movie from the rest of the cast altogether. When Green comes onscreen, the film does have some life and spunk, though. It’s clear from the start who the villain is, and Green tears into the role with gusto. I just wish there was more of it to go around.
The movie just sits there once the plot moves to 1972 and Barnabas finally achieves the restoration of his family name. It really plays up the fish-out-of-water angle with Barnabas being a man of his own time, then lurches forward to a loud and (literally) fiery final set piece. Of course, showing how inconsistent the film really is, it fails to explain a couple of things that happen there. I found it curious why Angelique starts cracking like a broken vase during the garish (for the 1970′s) “ball” that Barnabas throws, complete with a live performance by rocker Alice Cooper. Nothing is ever explained throughout the movie as to why that was happening so it’s just as confusing when holes start appearing in her skin during the final scenes. Also confusing is when one character turns into a werewolf. There was never any indication or even subtle hint that this was possible with the character. It happens, it’s explained by one throwaway line, then it’s just accepted as is.
The final scenes also drag. I was surprised this film had a running time of nearly two hours. It could have been a much tighter film with a reduction on Tim Burton’s indulgences. I think that’s the ultimate problem with “Dark Shadows”: Burton is too comfortable in this milleu of film. Granted, he has always maintained a love for societal outcasts and oddball characters. Johnny Depp is a frequent collaborator and he’s game. The rest of the talented cast (particularly Haley, Michelle Pfeiffer, and Chloe Grace Moretz) is wasted and/or under-used in their respective roles.
His films aren’t taking any risks, however. There’s nothing wrong with the film visually. The music is quite good. “Dark Shadows” is weird, but never wants to venture deep into the darker territory that would warrant the material. It’s loosely based on a cult gothic soap opera that ran in the ’60′s and ’70′s, yet it doesn’t feel slavish to that show. So why not have fun with tweaking the source material a bit? Burton never makes the film his own, and his love of the old television doesn’t shine through in what’s shown on the screen. I think people will be entertained by this film. It just feels more like empty calories rather than a fully nutritious meal.