Movie Review: 'Mary Shelley's Frankenstein' (1994)

Directed by and starring Kenneth Branagh, this new version has fine, perverse touches, but in the end it's strangely listless. Robert De Niro's creature is a haunting image. Head shaved, with barbed-wire stitches curlicued across his face, he lumbers through the snow like a deranged monk. But then, as he prepares to confront Frankenstein (Branagh), the ''father'' who created and abandoned him, something unexpected happens: The dramatic life begins to seep out of the movie. The key problem is Branagh's own performance. As Frankenstein, he's too wholesome — a kind of fervid workaholic yuppie who never seems truly possessed of a dark side. B