SYNOPSIS: “Dracula,” a new take on Bram Stoker’s classic vampire novel, now playing in theatres, is a love story about a 15th-century prince who spends four hundred years searching for the reincarnation of his late wife.
CAST: Caleb Landry Jones, Christoph Waltz, Zoë Bleu, Matilda De Angelis, Ewens Abid, David Shields, Guillaume de Tonquédec, Raphael Luce. Directed by Luc Besson.
REVIEW: This isn’t Bram Stoker’s “Dracula.” It’s maximalist French director Luc Besson’s “Dracula” with all the good and bad that implies.
A love story and an origin tale, the movie begins with Prince Vladimir of Wallachia (Caleb Landry Jones) i.re. Vlad the Impaler, renouncing God after the death of his beloved wife Elisabeta (Zoë Bleu) at the hands of the Ottomans.
Now called Dracula, he spends the next four hundred years drinking blood to stay “alive,” and using a specially formulated vampire perfume to entice women as the lovelorn vampire searches for the reincarnation of his late wife.
“I’m just a poor soul condemned by God and cursed to walk in the shadow of death for all eternity,” he says, “and sustain myself on fresh blood. Human blood is recommended.”
During real estate negotiations Dracula discovers that Mina (Zoë Bleu again), the wife of Parisian solicitor Jonathan Harker (Ewens Abid), is the woman he’s been searching an eternity for. Tracking her down, he convinces her that she is the reincarnation of Elisabeta and offers her eternal life.
“I would recognize you in another lifetime, entirely in different bodies, different times, and I would love you in all of them until the very last star in the sky burned out into oblivion.”
Meanwhile, a Vatican-sponsored vampire hunting priest (Christoph Waltz) is on the hunt for Dracula and his deadly disciples.
Luc Besson has never been known for a light touch. His films, like “The Fifth Element” and “Léon: The Professional,” are crowd-pleasing, style over substance movies that entertain the eye with high concept visuals and high energy action. Unafraid of spectacle, his films are often bold, often cheesy and often sumptuous.
“Dracula” is all those things. Besson’s study of eternal love has philosophical undertones, but, true to form, excess is the name of the game here, not metaphysical discourse. A scene in the court of Versailles, for instance, where Dracula tests out his special perfume is both lovely and lurid, but another sequence in which Drac repeatedly tries to kill himself in the wake of his wife’s death doesn’t have the intended pathos. Instead, it feels like an outtake from one of Abbott and Costello’s horror comedies.
Gorgeous costume and set design set the stage for Besson’s flashy gothic romp, distracting from a distinct lack of chemistry between the star-crossed soulmates. Landry is more convincing as a monster than lovelorn creature of the night, even if his 400-year-old-man makeup is a little rough. If this pair met in a singles bar, you wouldn’t think they had enough of a spark to make it to the dance floor, let alone inspire a lusty 400 yearlong journey.
Despite flaws that would put a stake in the heart of many other films, “Dracula” is entertaining, if only because Besson shakes up the familiar story to focus on the amorous rather than the murderous.
