The Bold, The Beautiful & The Bloodsucker

Tim Burton films haven’t faired too well in the last decade or so apart from his twin 2005 gems of Charlie & The Chocolate Factory and The Corpse Bride (although I’m quite fond of Sweeney Todd). The others (Planet Of The Apes, Alice In Wonderland) have been rather disjointed affairs that either lacked that Burton visual touch or had script that a planet load of apes on typewriters came up with. While his latest is more entertaining than most of these, I’m afraid Dark Shadows isn’t the return to form for Burton we’ve been hoping for.

A loose adaptation of the early 70’s soap opera, Dark Shadows has an unearthed Vampire return to his family home after 200 years of being buried alive. There he intends to restore his family’s honor and wealth by gaining control of the small fishing town back from a ruthless local business woman (who just happens to be the same jealous witch who incarcerated him centuries ago!) Even for a Burton film Shadows may not be what you’d expect being a strange mish-mash of soap opera, wacky comedy and gothic horror. The soap elements come into play with an ensemble drama with each character plotting their own agendas at the expense of all the others, the comedic elements are very broad and offbeat while the gothic horror tone pervades the whole film meaning the comedy is undercut with dark visual look and dread filled score.

To Burton’s credit it does in fact work. The cast are superb, especially the enigmatic Depp whose every gesture, glance and utterance raises a smile as his stiff and mannered vampire interacts, fish out of water style, in the 1970’s ‘contemporary’ world he now finds himself in. The gorgeous Eva Green is also noteworthy as she attempts scheme and seduce her way into Depp’s heart and wallet.

What doesn’t work so well is the lazy, disjointed script which lollops and rambles from one plot thread to the other, with characters like Bella Heathcote’s Vicky disappearing for long chunks of screen time before being awkwardly reintroduced. If the recent Avengers has shown us, it IS possible to juggle multiple characters and plots without sacrificing pace, comedy or coherence in the overall story. The comedy isn’t that sharp either and another pass at the script might have made it a little more consistent.

Not everybody will go for this unusual, offbeat film with it’s heightened dramatics and oddball over the top characters but Dark Shadows being a Tim Burton/ Johnny Depp colaboration it’s not at all a waste of your time.