Burton fumbles 'Dark Shadows' with lack of focus

The word auteur is tossed around frequently in criticism to essentially describe directors that have a knack for doing the same type of thing in filmmaking over and over again. This is not necessarily a bad thing as noted by Kenneth Branagh's unique take on "Thor" and Christopher Nolan's cerebral character study of Bruce Wayne across "Batman Begins" and "The Dark Knight." However, when a director's style becomes the center of all flaws surrounding a given film, stylistic choices can quickly sink the final production, as evidenced by acclaimed director Tim Burton's adaptation of the late 60s cult classic gothic soap opera, "Dark Shadows."

I freely admit to being long disenchanted by Burton's bag of tricks by the middle of the previous decade but even I cannot deny that there are source materials which can strongly benefit from his sense of style, such as his take on "Sweeney Todd." I was hoping that he would bring such a level of craftsmanship to his interpretation of a campy modern day vampire drama in an age where the vampires are in desperate need of lampooning. Alas, the only thing entertaining about "Dark Shadows" is its success in being a perfect standing example of everything that Burton does wrong in filmmaking.

As with its source material, "Dark Shadows" chronicles the tragic lives of the Collins family starting in the late 1700s and then later on in the early 1970s. After breaking the heart of his childhood sweetheart, Angelique Bouchard -played by Eva Green-, who happens to be a witch, Barnabas Collins -Johnny Depp- is cursed into a life of vampirism, ultimately resulting in his burial by the townsfolk. He is unearthed and subsequently awakened in 1972, returning to his home to see what has become of his family. Upon realizing the poor financial shape that the Collins' find themselves in, he sets out to assist the Collins family in reclaiming their former glory a while coming to terms with Angelique, who has used her magic to keeps herself alive into the future Barnabas finds himself in.

As per usual for Tim Burton's films, the costuming, and set design are all top notch. The sets manage to maintain a period appropriate attention to detail without ever truly devolving into a parody of American 70s culture. Although I question Burton's desire to make ever female lead look like a pale lifeless husk of a human being, the costuming generally makes up for the bizarre makeup choices of the human characters.

Furthermore, the cast manages to elevate the material that they have to work with, which becomes a saving grace in the more awkward scenes of the film. Chloe Moretz as rebellious teenage daughter Carolyn gives a little bit more life than expected to a character whose quirks ultimately go nowhere. The same can be said of Gulliver McGrath as the precocious yet disturbed David, who intrigues but unfortunately never delivers on his potential.

Michelle Pfeiffer brings her A-game whenever she's onscreen as Collins family matriarch Elizabeth, entering every scene with a strong presence and strongly defining her characters loyalty to family above all else. In a surprising turn of events however, I found myself incredibly endeared by Johnny Depp's performance as Barnabas. Johnny Depp is no stranger to quirky roles, arguably accepting them in such bulk that to see him looking normal in a film is more unusual and welcome than seeing him in gothic makeup and dressed up in pre-Victorian era garb. However his mannerisms are played down, making the fish out of water gags that the film pulls with his characters somewhat charming, reminiscent in many ways of "Edward Scissorhands" for obvious reasons.

Unfortunately, Burton's penchant for style over substance shines mightily in "Dark Shadows" despite a somewhat charming first act. After introducing the characters and setting everything into motion, the movie quickly becomes scattershot. Plot threads and character arcs build and popup out of every corner, pushing most of the supporting cast to the side and wasting any development that they may have actually need for the finale of the film to have any sort of poignancy what so ever.

For all of the ideas set into play at the start, the movie chooses to toy with whatever idea tickles its fancy at that given point in time rather than build upon the foundation that the film took almost a half hour to layout. Bella Heathcote's character of Victoria Winters receives a lot of screen time in the first act of the film, only to be virtually forgotten until the last 20 minutes once Barnabas enters the story.

The film's inability to pick and develop individual ideas further limit the capabilities of the cast as nobody beyond Depp, Green, and Pfeiffer seem to serve an actual purpose in the film, thus rendering many performances pointless regardless of their effectiveness. This severe drawback causes "Dark Shadows" to collapse in on itself once its climax comes to fruition, introducing plot threads and ideas that not only were never built up to or even remotely hinted at but blatantly contradict everything presented in the film up to that moment for the sake of dramatic convenience and a rather sloppily coordinated and drawn out action sequence.

I honestly wish I could say that I was disappointed by the way "Dark Shadows" turned out but this is honestly what I've come to expect from Tim Burton nowadays. "Dark Shadows" is far from his worst movie in recent history but it just may be the greatest showcase of everything he does wrong as a director and in a summer that shows so much promise regarding theatrical releases, there is no justification I can think of to warrant a theatergoing experience. In a year full of ups and downs in terms of quality, this is easily the most mediocre film that I have seen all year.  

C