We can all thank Guillermo Del Toro for having such imaginative bad dreams, because they always materialize as sumptuous, visual feasts for the eyes. Unfortunately, as time goes on, the stories are getting less imaginative. Too bad you can't have everything.
IMDB says "In the aftermath of a family tragedy, an aspiring author (Mia Wasikowski as Edith Cushing) is torn between love for her childhood friend (Charlie Hunnam as Dr. Alan McMichael) and the temptation of a mysterious stranger (Tom Hiddleston as Thomas Sharpe). Trying to escape the ghosts of her past, she is swept away to a house that breathes, bleeds - and remembers."
Whoooo! Scary stuff. Or is it? The previews promised a fairly scary, gothic haunted house story. But, in reality, is a fairly stock ghost story written for the post-feminism audience. I actually encourage strong, female characters, but I hate it when they are stereotypes of modern women stuck in an age that holds their aspirations down and the female protagonist is a misunderstood lion that people just "don't get." Everyone else around her is either loved but hopelessly stuck in another time, stupid or evil. This movie plays every Harlequin romance trope out to a nauseating degree. Without giving too much away, Edith Cushing leaves a perfectly nice guy she grew up with and actually likes (and likes her back) to go away to England with Thomas Sharpe, a mysterious good-looking English landed gentry but penniless lord and his equally mysterious sister, Lucille (Jessica Chastaine). Edith does this because Sharpe reads and likes her story she is writing and that most everyone else dismisses (thus obviously making him more evolved and intelligent than everyone else around him). She finds herself in a beautiful, huge, but disintegrating manor house built in the middle of nowhere. Ghosts start showing up for a reason I won't get into. Things go bad.
This movie sort of annoyed me for the reasons stated above. Wasikowski is basically annoying and Hunnam phones it in, turning in the most wooden performance since Pinocchio or Showgirls. But all is not lost. This is, after all, a Del Toro movie, and it's the visuals that matter most. He delivers them in spades. The scenes in the Crimson Peak manor are incredibly atmospheric and a joy to watch. A collision a harsh colors and dark shadows, hinting at evil lurking around every corner. This melange of elements guarantees I will never tire of what Del Toro can do. He is a singularly gifted director of the visual, from Cronos and The Devil's Backbone to his masterpiece Pan's Labyrinth. His style uplifts even mediocre material like Pacific Rim, Blade Ii, and the Hellboys. His films are always interesting and enjoyable to watch, the sheer joy and horror of the visuals are a symphony for the eyes. Hiddleston and Chastaine play the most gleefully evil characters, and they are clearly having a ball with it. They are so much fun in these roles. Go for visual, but check your brain at the door for the story.
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