First, the good news. The movie ends up being a visual treat, like most of Del Toro’s films, especially Pan’s Labyrinth and Hellboy. Production design, cinematography, color palettes, atmosphere, special effects, costumes and make-up earn high marks. And the first part of the film succeeds in drawing us into the world of Edith Cushing (Mia Wasikowska), a young aspiring writer with enough gumption to take her novel directly to a publisher.

Edith, the daughter of a wealthy self-made business man (Jim Beaver), appears to be more independent than most women who live in New York during the early 1900s. She has resisted her father’s wishes that she marry longtime friend Dr. Alan McMichael (Charles Hunnam). But romance comes into Edith’s life when the aristocratic Thomas Sharpe (Tom Hiddleston) arrives on the scene with his intense sister (Jessica Chastain) and tries to persuade Edith’s father to invest in his new invention. After a suspicious tragedy occurs, Edith marries Thomas, who takes her to his family’s Allerdale Hall in rural England. So far, so good. We are completely hooked on the story and the characters at this point.

Now for the bad news. Because it pains me to say anything negative about a Guillermo del Toro offering, perhaps a poem will soften the blow.  

She trusts a man who says he cares.

How can she know she’s in for scares?

He takes her to his family home,

a crumbling manse with open dome.

But even worse is danger from

a jealous kin out for a sum.

Foreboding sets help evoke doom

in hallways, stairs and every room.

An elevator: up and down

so many times, I had to frown.

And candlesticks alit at night

soon ceased to give me any fright.

The cast seems fine most of the time.

Still, repetition is the crime.

This Crimson Peak just creaks along

with ghosts and things that all go wrong.

From the time Edith enters the huge Allerdale Hall, she appears like a different person altogether. Her gumption must have got up and left. But, in all fairness, the deteriorating mansion would probably unhinge most people. (SPOILER ALERT) One of the worst things that happens to Edith involves a whopper of a fall. How she recovers so rapidly is the most unbelievable thing that happens in this uneven film. I could accept the ghosts, who aren’t very scary – but after that dreadful fall incident, it was hard for me to suspend disbelief any longer. Still, I felt sorry for the three key actors – Wasikowska, Hiddleston and Chastain – who continued to soldier on through a no longer fascinating and highly predictable plot. Chastain in particular deserves special recognition for her dynamic portrayal of a character reminiscent of Mrs. Danvers in Rebecca, my favorite Gothic romance flick.

(Released by Universal Pictures and rated “R” for bloody violence, some sexual content and brief strong language.)

Review also posted at ReelTalk Movie Reviews.