Bram Stoker’s Dracula – 4 stars

Francis Ford Coppola’s take on the Dracula story is wild, campy, and brisk.  It also has a few scares, but one gets the sense Gary Oldman’s operatic Transylvanian count is not to be taken too seriously.

After all, Oldman appears in, by my count, 7 guises, including a nifty pile of rats, and he is just short of hammy in all.  Not to be outdone, Anthony Hopkins’ Dr. Van Helsing is near giddy in his thirst for scene-chewing and vampire heads.

In its first half, the picture feels very Baz Luhrmann meets Saturday-at-the-movies serial. It settles into a more leisurely pace in the middle, as Dracula attempts to take root in London and his opposition grows.  The picture is a gas, and Coppola’s rejection of an overly serious, brooding vampire is welcome. Perhaps it is not quite a rejection, as Oldman tries so hard to be otherworldly and tortured, he may be the last one in on the joke.

The film is also surprisingly erotic, as is evidenced by poor Jonathan Harker’s seduction at the hands of Dracula’s babes and the complete, sensual overload delivered to Winona Ryder and Sadie Frost as they fall under Dracula’s sway and then use all of their wiles to get at necks.

Speaking of, Harker is played by Keanu Reeves, who was then fresh off of two Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure movies.  If you thought Kevin Costner had problems with an English accent in Robin Hood, you have to check out this performance (both Costner and Reeves are listed in the Top Five Most terrible British Accents, and rightfully so.  Reeves can hold his accent – barely – for one line, and then, he’s one syllable away from San Dimas and “duuuude.” Then, he’s back to a dramatic and unconvincing “Carfax Abbey” only to drop it again, as if he knows how silly he sounds. Ultimately, Reeves appears so uncomfortable, he retreats into the implacably unaffected stoner no matter what Oldman and Hopkins throw at him, a treat all in itself.

Great, grandiose soundtrack as well.