Film Review: ‘Frankenstein’ redo gives new life to Igor

Hmmm ... Frankenstein ... That name sounds vaguely familiar ... Where have I heard it ... Maybe it’s in some movie ...

... or maybe in about a hundred.

The new version, “Victor Frankenstein,” from director Paul McGuigan and screenwriter Max Landis, has no great resemblance to Mary Shelley’s novel or to James Whale’s 1931 movie (which itself wasn’t very faithful to Shelley). This infidelity isn’t such a terrible thing for two reasons. First, there’s little point in slavishly cleaving to a story that’s already been filmed over and over. Secondly, Shelley’s book is almost unreadably dull — quite an accomplishment, given how short it is.

Of the million possible variations, “Victor Frankenstein” takes what we might call the “Mary Reilly” approach. Tell the story from the point of view of a minor character; in the case of “Mary Reilly,” that of Dr. Jekyll’s maid.

In the case of “Victor Frankenstein,” it’s Igor the hunchback, who isn’t even in the novel, but was created for the 1931 film (where he wasn’t even named Igor, but rather Fritz). The new movie starts with his quite articulate voice-over. Initially Igor (Daniel Radcliffe) doesn’t even have a name. Known only as “the hunchback,” he’s a clown in a circus, whose cast and crew relentlessly beat and humiliate him.

Luckily, he’s also a medical genius and has taught himself to do sophisticated procedures. Even more luckily, medical student Victor Frankenstein (James McAvoy) happens to be in attendance the night that Igor saves the life of Lorelei (Jessica Brown Findlay), fallen acrobat and obvious love-interest-to-be. Recognizing the clown’s brilliance, Victor rescues him and dubs him Igor, after a good friend who has recently vanished mysteriously.

As it turns out, the hunchback isn’t even a hunchback. Frankenstein identifies his hump as a giant abscess and promptly siphons out the fluid. If you’ve ever been around the draining of a giant abscess, you’ll be more sickened by this scene than anything in the rest of the movie.

A bath, a shave, and a fresh set of clothes, and Igor is transformed into the handsome young Radcliffe (or, if you squint real hard, Elijah Wood).

The duo is able to build a custom monster, thanks to funding from a fabulously wealthy young snot named Finnegan (Freddie Fox). Finnegan is interested in building his own private army, because being the heir to the third largest family fortune in England just isn’t good enough for some people.

If you suspend your disbelief long enough, the whole affair is neither painful nor particularly worthwhile. McAvoy plays Frankenstein as barking mad from his first scene; he gets to have the most fun. As fanatically religious Scotland Yard inspector Turpin, Andrew Scott — Moriarty from “Sherlock” and the villain in “Spectre” — is almost as crazy.

McGuigan’s flashy style was displayed in both “Gangster #1” and “Lucky Number Slevin”; together with some really nice production design, it’s almost enough to keep things here interesting.

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ANDY KLEIN is the film critic for Marquee. He can also be heard on “FilmWeek” on KPCC-FM (89.3).