'Lisa Frankenstein' Is Thematically Drained of Sympathy
Thematically all over the place, Lisa Frankenstein is better off dead. Okay, that's a little harsh, but the film is an ethical nightmare. What's supposed to be funny is disturbing and not in a good kind of way. The film is entirely concentrated on Lisa (Kathryn Netwon) for its heart. With a film so reliant on a central protagonist, you would hope that she would be relatable. In the beginning, she is, until halfway through the film, where we question what her morals are. Is Lisa a shy teenager who finds love and hence discovers her rebellious self? Or is she just as selfish as she thinks everyone around her is?
The story of Lisa Frankenstein is familiar. It should be, after all, considering the word Frankenstein is in its title. Lisa shares a similarity to Winona Ryder's Lydia from Beetlejuice. Both are gothically dressed girls, all donned in black. Both have a relationship with the dead. And both have neglectful parents. Unlike Lydia, Lisa doesn't care for her stepfamily's safety. Even at their most disregardful, Lydia didn't wish harm upon her guardians. She just wanted them out of the house. If you've seen Warm Bodies (a much better film), then you can make out the plot of this one.
Lisa is a young woman who doesn't fit in. She frequents The Bachelor Cemetery in hopes of one day joining the dead soon. When we first meet Lisa, she's with her stepsister Taffy (Liza Soberano), getting ready to go to a big party. Lisa doesn't want to go, but Taffy insists. Based on her therapist's orders, she needs to socialize more. Reluctantly, Lisa agrees to go, hoping to one day hook up with Michael Trent (Henry Eikenberry). At the party, Lisa is drugged by Michael, escapes being raped by Doug (Bryce Romero), and stumbles into the bachelor cemetery. How did she get there so fast and when so intoxicated? Is the cemetery that close to the house? We learn from the exposition provided at the party that Lisa's mom is dead. She now lives with Taffy and her parents. Both who act like they could care less about Lisa's mental health.
The stepparents think Lisa should stop being depressed despite her mom's death. The dad, Dale (Joe Chrest) is an air-headed typical American, digging his face in the newspaper instead of being concerned about what's happening in front of him. He's a gee wiz, aw shucks father who doesn't raise a finger without his wife's permission. The mom, Janet (Carla Gugino), is a nurse in a Psychiatric ward. You would think she would be more sympathetic to Lisa, considering her job and the trauma Lisa went through, but that isn't the case. Janet constantly threatens Lisa that if she doesn't snap out of her depression spell, she'll send her back to the psych ward.
Everyone in this film is a terrible person except for Taffy. Taffy is a school cheerleader, but she isn't written as an unintelligible, cruel person. She's a shoulder for Lisa to cry on and is her only friend. But even she shows her true colors at one point in the movie. The only person who's a good person in this film is Lisa. Or so we think.
Lisa is a well-established character whose actions go from one to one hundred in a series of baffling character choices. We're supposed to root for Lisa, but it's hard to do so when she snaps. Lisa's similar to Stephen King's Carrie, except Lisa doesn't have it as nearly as bad as that character, nor does she reach a point in the film where she's justified to do what she does. Much of the film hinders on its love story. It's a twisted tale of finding love in all the wrong places. At the cemetery Lisa frequents, there's a particular grave she keeps stopping at. Lisa leaves little love letters there, hoping she can be with the man under the ground. She doesn't know this person yet romanticizes them being together when she's dead.
When The Creature (Cole Sprouse) comes to life, he breaks into Lisa's house. At first alerted, Lisa soon after falls for The Creature. The zombie has a conscience, but he can't speak. Col Sprouse does all his communicating through grunts and body language. It's a cute performance, but anyone can play a zombie. Kathryn Newton's performance as Lisa is tender. She's soft-spoken, quirky, and delightful. She does a grand job with her performance based on a flawed script.
For seasoned screenwriter Diablo Cody, this isn't one of her best outings. Cody can be hit-or-miss. She can hit with Juno, and Young Adult or miss entirely with Jennifer's Body. Her scripts work best when all the characters are fully fleshed out people. It doesn't work when Cody writes cardboard-thin cast characters. Aside from Lisa and Taffy, there's no dimension to the other characters. They're just people who are deplorable to our main character. Even worse, Lisa Frankenstein misses in us caring for the film's protagonist. It's a shame since the film starts in such a promising direction. Lisa's backstory gives us all the necessary direction to make us understand why Lisa is so awkward. She's a well-built character who comes crumbling down in the ethics department midway into the film.
Refraining from spoilers, Lisa goes on a quest of self-discovery through questionable matters. It's a film where you want to see the characters punished for the terrible people that they are. But it doesn't feel warranted when the film is combating itself to try to discover what kind of film it is. It's only mildly funny and incomprehensibly mean-spirited.
A story about a teenager falling in love with a zombie is one thing. A story about a teenager falling in love with a zombie and then taking her frustration out on the world is a disturbing other thing. What works in the beginning falls apart in the end. Lisa Frankenstein has little to do with Mary Shelley's book and more with pop culture horror films that work against the movie's own good.
