Gods and Monsters

Gods and Monsters is a quiet and insightful drama about the last years of the English Hollywood director James Whale and his close relationship with the young gardener Clayton Boone, who is in many ways Whale's diametric opposite.

Whale enjoyed great popularity in the 1930s as director of the classic Frankenstein films, but he left the industry prematurely when he felt he had been badly treated. Gods and Monsters is set in 1957, when Whale is suffering from the after-effects of several strokes. He lives in lonely splendour with only his faithful housekeeper Hanna for company. Much of the film is rooted in reality, but the gardener Clayton Boone is fictional.

The homosexual Whale is attracted to the muscular Clayton, who agrees to sit as a model for Whale despite his misgivings about Whale's sexual preferences. A strange friendship develops. Clayton listens, fascinated, as the older man is overwhelmed by his memories of a poor childhood and the trenches of the First World War.

The interplay between Ian McKellen and Brendan Fraser is formidable, and it is refreshing to see that Fraser can play something other than one-dimensional adventure heroes.