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Reviews / Blog article: Shedding some light on 'Dark Shadows'
Alec Regimbal
ALEC REGIMBAL
WEST VALLEY HIGH SCHOOL
One of Hollywood's most famous duos has done it again with the recent release of Tim Burton's "Dark Shadows" starring Johnny Depp, along with an excellent supporting cast made up of Michelle Pfeiffer, Jackie Earle Haley, Eva Green and Helena Bonham Carter.
The film's plot follows that of the original 1966 soap opera by the same name, in which Barnabas Collins (Depp) awakens from a 196-year slumber inside of a coffin after being cursed with vampirism and being buried underground, both done by an evil witch (Eva Green) with a hateful grudge.
Collins awakens in the year 1972, and returns to his manor known as Collinwood in the town of Collinsport, a small town in Maine that he and his family built on an economy of fishing and canning.
Upon his return, he quickly begins to establish various relationships with the remaining Collinses, most notably his new infatuation with a governess (Hollywood newcomer Bella Heathcote), who has been hired by the family's temporary unofficial leader (Michelle Pfeiffer), to tutor the son of her brother (Johnny Lee Miller).
After all seems to be going in his favor, Barnabas realizes to his horror that Collins' rival cannery, Angel Bay Fishery, is headed by non-other than the witch that had imprisoned him almost two centuries prior. Barnabas realizes he must now face his oldest rival at her own game, all while keeping his family's best interests in mind and tending to his feelings for his new love affair in a desperate battle between good and evil.
Now, the first thing I noticed about this film, besides the rushed start, was its subtle charm. This is not the first time I've seen a movie in which someone from the past ends up in the present (the past from our point of view). This is a classic recipe for humor, but what makes it work so well in this film is that it's ACTUALLY funny.
Depp does a magnificent job with this role in that his acting style greatly compliments the numerous misunderstandings his character has with others, as well as his confusion and fascination with the world at the time.
Acting is where this adaption continues to rack up points. Burton tends to have this cautious habit which involves using the same actors in all of his films, a great choice in this case. The supporting cast performs so well, that it's almost not noticeable in the film, meaning that every cast member fits their part perfectly.
Being able to see the troupe of talent perform so dynamically simple in "Dark Shadows" made watching it almost hypnotic, a hypnosis that is never interrupted with an "Oh my, that was bad acting" comment (with the exception of Chloë Grace Mortez), which is something everyone enjoys while watching.
Unfortunately, the plot is really where this movie lacks, but not because of the usual writing or directing flaws, but the simple idea behind its creation. The entire film is a series of seemingly random events, leaving its audience to wonder where it would lead.
The conclusion of the film seemed to be an attempt to fit in some final concepts from the original television series, which lead to a lot of poorly and randomly introduced twists, making the entire picture lose a lot of its luster in an attempt for those extra accuracy points. Burton made a lot of good choices in his latest work, but attempting to fit a series that ran on television for five years into two hours did not work so well.
Ultimately, Tim Burton's "Dark Shadows" boasted a copious amount of high grade qualities, but was a failure in potential since its conception; the film just simply wasn't doable, leading me to attach the label of another Burton-Depp collaboration that reminds us more of "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" (2005) and "Alice in Wonderland" (2010), rather than than their classics: "Edward Scissorhands" (1990) and "Ed Wood" (1994).
–Alec Regimbal is a junior at West Valley High School and a member of the Yakima Herald-Republic's Unleashed journalism program for high school students.
