Most vampire fanatics are familiar with Bram Stoker’s classic tale about eternal, monstrous love in some form or another. Countless interpretations of the novel have been offered, to varying degrees of praise. Enter acclaimed director Luc Besson, at a point in time that could be considered the sunset of his career. Dracula (titled Dracula: A Love Tale outside of the States) follows the titular character, who, following the tragic loss of his true love, curses God and spends 400 years trying to find his love again. This adaptation sounds like nothing new, and, unfortunately, its contents proved correct.
Dracula treats its main character and villain as more of an anti-hero than a monster. He is ultimately a tortured soul, cursed by a God that he initially had faith in, and must reap the consequences of his rejection. Besson’s screenplay takes a significantly more romantic, doomed approach to Dracula than a man driven to madness by the loneliness of immortality. This romantic take is doubled down on by Caleb Landry-Jones‘s lead performance.
Landry-Jones is a compelling choice, bringing out the loneliness and pain needed for this version of Dracula. He has a quiet but demanding presence and maintained my attention. Even beneath layers of prosthetics, his performance shines through and adds depth I did not expect from a movie with such a focus on romance.
The other cast members are largely at a similar level as Landry-Jones, specifically Zoë Bleu in a dual role (Elisabeta and Mina, the latter being the doppelgänger of the former) and Matilda De Angelis as Maria, an agent of Dracula who has one of the most striking presences in the film aside from Landry-Jones. Bleu in particular foils Dracula’s monstrosity in the dual role. Her innocent eyes and curiosity towards Dracula enthrall the audience and make for fascinating chemistry between her and Landry-Jones. De Angelis’s Maria steals one scene in particular in which a priest and two doctors study her and her traits as a vampire, depicting a frenzied and bloodthirsty creature of the night.
The only performance that was weak in comparison to the rest was Christoph Waltz as the aforementioned priest. Waltz’s performance is phoned in and lacks the tone the rest of the actors set for the film, which is surprising given Waltz’s impeccable track record. Despite this, Besson’s cast pulls their weight and largely complement each other to bring a compelling (even if overdone) love story from page to screen.
The production design places the film on a grand scale with stunning physical sets. A Dracula adaptation deserves large banquet halls and haunting city streets at night; however, the film was surprisingly less gothic in tone than I expected. The production design, despite its grandeur, fails to match the gothic horror tone that other adaptations nail on the head. Thus, the film’s tone is more akin to Twilight (2008) than to anything else. This is evident in both its central love story and its sets.
Above all else, Landry-Jones’ Dracula is a romantic, fixated on finding his lost love. While this is an integral component of the character across all adaptations, making Elisabeta’s reincarnation his sole purpose feels one-dimensional and flat. The film also makes it too concrete that Mina is, in fact, Elisabeta’s reincarnation, as in other versions, Dracula simply believes that Mina is the reincarnation of his lost love. The dimension of madness and complexity within the title character is lost in this version, feeling too similar to a dark romance than a gothic horror. There should be a balance between the horror and the romantic, and Besson failed to strike gold in that regard.
Despite impressive lead performances, set design, and many other technical aspects, Dracula was ultimately a letdown for a self-proclaimed vampire fan such as myself. Besson’s version of the Dark Prince runs too close to Edward Cullen to be believable or compelling, and although Landry-Jones provides a unique version of Dracula, his talents were ultimately wasted. Unfortunately, the film’s half-baked screenplay focuses too much on the romance and not enough on the gothic.
Review Courtesy of Nadia Arain
Feature Image Credit to Vertical via IMDb