Lisa Frankenstein: Putting the Pieces Together in the Wrong Places

A coming of RAGE love story from acclaimed writer Diablo Cody (Jennifer’s Body) about a misunderstood teenager and her high school crush, who happens to be a handsome corpse. After a set of playfully horrific circumstances bring him back to life, the two embark on a murderous journey to find love, happiness… and a few missing body parts along the way.

Review:

Lisa Frankenstein is a mess. It tries on different parts and ditches them.

A revived corpse and a Goth teen have some serious Sweeney Todd vibes. Unfortunately, the only pies coming from this union are of the cutie pie kind.

There are many Johnny Depp allusions too. Cole Sprouse has the pasty face look and wavy hair of Depp’s Sweeney combined with an Edward Scissorhand’s sweetness and innocence but none of the artistry. There’s no exquisite hedge trimmings or even clever kills with a straight razor. There’s just wasted opportunities to amp things up. It’s all highly disappointing considering the reliable script mistress Diablo Cody created it out of her deranged mind.

The Frankenstein story shorn of its hubris and man playing God mystique is really a reflection of the anxieties, insecurities of its authoress- a 19-year-old Mary Shelley. It’s the quintessential teen book, brimming and overflowing with the trepidations of children becoming responsible and mature adults.

Diablo Cody knows this genre well. She scripted the teen angst baby dramedy Juno and the succubus possessing a cheerleader Jennifer’s Body. Yet, with all the genre borrowing Cody can’t stitch together a decent script or even give its characters electric life beyond their one dimensional flatness. It’s just another teen romance about a loser finding love in the oddest and most unexpected way. Lisa Frankenstein aspires only to be a John Hughes horror comedy film, a rejected story idea because there is no signature Hughe’s charm or even characters animating it.

There is a clever nod in the title to the maker of the 80 craze for Lisa Frank stickers. No kitschy unicorns or cute kittens adorn notebooks or walls. I sense a rights problem. It’s an inexcusable slip up, especially for a movie that gets so much 1980’s décor and fashion right. Still, Lisa’ Gothic style choices are pretty spot on and her hair is the height of 80’s frizzy cool.

The plot has that predictable 80’s feel. Lisa (Kathryn Newton) lives with her father (Joe Chrest), her stepmother (Carla Gugino) and her cheerleader stepsister (Liza Soberano) in the suburbs. She misses her dead mother desperately, but is trying to get on with life at her new school, where she’s even spotted a cute guy to crush on. Yet her true love, a 19th-century dead guy, is in the graveyard, where she hangs out to make grave rubbings and daydream. You can write the rest of the plot yourself.

First time director- Zelda Williams has a unique ability to drain the humor away from its life basis. The film wears out its welcome rather fast, because Williams is constantly undercutting the witty performance of Newton and Howard. The mishmash of film references get in the way and lack thematic focus. I didn’t know whether I was suppose to feel sympathy for Lisa and her love interest or repulsed.