Alternate Best Actor 1994: Robert De Niro in Mary Shelley's Frankenstein

Robert De Niro did not receive an Oscar nomination for portraying Frankenstein's monster in Mary Shelley's Frankenstein. 

Mary Shelley's Frankenstein I imagine was propositioned as a spiritual successor to Bram Stoker's Dracula, given the title, the faithfulness of certain aspects of the adaptation (including the strange seemingly extraneous bits) and the fact that it was produced by Francis Ford Coppola, who originally intended to direct. The difference is though the aforementioned film is some operatic kitsch that is brilliant somehow...this film is not. 

Anyway naturally much of the film follows not De Niro as the monster, but director/star Kenneth Branagh in the leading role as Dr. Frankenstein hell bent on reversing death. De Niro shows up first as a man with pox who becomes violent before being quickly executed. I will spay just watching this scene it is easy to forget the time in which De Niro was a typically a devoted actor, as that certainly is the case here. For one thing he is not phoning it in. This is the fact that De Niro doesn't instantly stand out in his first scene is notable, as his accent isn't unconvincing, and it is easy to believe him as this simplistic thug if just for a few moments of screentime. I must grant that it is more than decent work from De Niro who in this scene seems to desire some kind of reality unlike his director. His director who again I think suffers from attempting to realize that tone Coppola found for Dracula, unsurprisingly, again I'm not entirely sure how Coppola even managed to make that tone work. De Niro appears again when the doctor succeeds in creating the monster a more ragged creature than the unforgettable Karloff rendition. In this aspect though I will commend the attempt and say it is not entirely a failure. De Niro's first appearance one could say is underplayed, though with conviction, in portraying just the scared almost senseless creature as he immediately runs from the mob.  De Niro moving just as a ill-formed human and a terrified one only defending itself within its escape. 

Honestly I'd say De Niro's greatest hindrance is his makeup always has a certain artificial quality to it, yes he's supposed to be made up however it looks like literally that he is makeup. I think this limits really accepting him as the monster in say the way one instantly did for Karloff in the role. It's shame as I do think there is an innate poignancy as we follow the creature learning to be more human, such as befriending a blind man and learning how to speak from a family. An actor of De Niro's note frankly could be very silly, but De Niro actually stay devoted to the concept. This in speaking with a muted tone of a man trying to break free some bound to speak again. This in portraying simple but earnest emotions of fear and happiness at the bit of tenderness he finds. His conversation with the blind man is actually quite remarkably performed by De Niro in the purposefully stilted delivery of the creature still learning, but his eyes filled with a simple hope for some joy. Equally earnest is his break down at being as quickly banished form the circumstances by those who can see him. Sadly, unaided by Branagh's over the top way of shooting it, his cry of "Frankenstein, revenge" becomes more silly than anything, although again the way he's framed in the shot is mostly what makes it that way. 

The creature becomes more so the villain in the second half as the film becomes more so a mess. De Niro's performance is actually interesting though as we see the more developed creature confront Frankenstein directly. This as De Niro speaks with a quiet menace and a degree of contemplation. There even as he threatens there's a sadness within his work that reflects the strange state of the creature. Although Branagh seems largely interested in bombast, again perhaps mistakenly going for that Dracula tone again, whereas De Niro seems to seek something closer to a more intimate idea of crafting a man out of many and just leaving him to his own devices without guidance. Sadly that is all thrown out it in favor of a series of progressively sillier scenes of the monster killing Frankenstein's loved ones while the doctor kind of just runs about. It doesn't go anywhere terribly interesting. Even the big "Bride of Frankenstein" scene carries little emotional weight, though I'll credit De Niro in trying to make something of it, even in brief glimpses. Sadly the latter portion of that performance is that. Branagh's direction doesn't really spend any time with the two men as characters, rather just kind of rams through the conflict in a sloppy and wholly detached way. This sadly leaving De Niro, much like his character, left in the middle of a ocean without really anywhere to go. De Niro I do think has something to say within the role, sadly it gets muted by some truly sloppy direction.