People will go see Lisa Frankenstein based on who it was written by (Diablo Cody) and who they cast in the lead role (Kathryn Newton). People will leave the theater wonder what the hell they just watched. Are their moments in the film which come across well? Sure, Cody does manage to string together a few plot twists which some might call clever. One wonders though whether those twists were elevated by Newton’s over the top performance. However, the rest of the film is this menagerie of plot devices which are meant to connect and give the audience a 80’s Beetlejuice vibe. What it accomplishes is confusing theatergoers and even putting some to sleep (this literally occurred in the screening I went to).
Lisa Frankenstein is suppose to be a tale of Lisa Swallows (Newton), a senior in high school who is repressed socially due in large part to her mother being brutally murdered by some axe murder. Instead of partying with her fellow seniors, she tends to hangout in her local cemetery, reading and making gravestone rubbings. Mentally, she’s in the darkest space since right after her mom died. Now, dad is remarried, she has a step sister and a wicked step mom played by Carla Gugino. She tries to break out her rut by going to her party with her step sister and get felt up by some horny boy which causes her to dash out of the house and into the woods. Inexplicably, it just happens that this house she was for the party is close to the cemetery she frequents. Lisa heads to her favorite grave stone, catches her breath, for no real reason in this moment in the movie, states that she wishes they were together. This somehow triggers a cosmic reaction and later that evening, during a storm, a lightning strike manages to hit that same gravestone and I bet you know what occurs next. Frankenstein (Cole Sprouse) manages to find Lisa’s home after being dead for so long and they get acquainted.
For me, this is where the movie goes south real quick. A story that should have focused more on their unnatural connection towards each other morphs into a neon colored Encino Man remake. There’s a great deal of time spent on Lisa trying to get him spruced up and acclimated to the world he now lives in. Then it quickly becomes slightly 80’s Rom-Comish. Cody’s screenplay spends too much on the zany and wacky elements of this story and not on the twisted budding romance the story is trying to tell. The only attempt and trying to address their connection is when Frankenstein commits heinous acts in the name of love. Going into what that was is a bit of a spoiler but had Cody’s screenplay leaned more into the gore it would have made the film over the top accomplishing what the film intended.
Cody’s screenplay tires to throw so throw much at the screen. There’s step-sister dynamic, a crazy step-mom, a listless dad, and lisa wanting to hook up with the school’s scholarly bad boy. All of which come off as out of place and seem forced in the context of this story. The idea of Lisa Frankenstein sounds great. Perhaps with better source material, the film could have been something more. Instead, we are left puzzled, bewildered, and irritated that we just paid to see this in a theater.
Dewey Singleton has been reviewing new releases in television and film for many years. Dewey's reviews have been heard in multiple markets (Houston Atlanta, Tampa). Dewey's past work has been with awardswatch.com, awardsradar.com, and bleeding cool. Dewey is a proud member of the CCA.