The cover of the VHS edition features a film critic's remark that the movie is "Erotic", which gives you an idea of how far from the book this movie has fallen. In Branagh's defense, there are a lot of difficulties translating the original work into movie form as there are many long passages of time in which critical details are summarized, also there is a lot of introspection and conversation that would need to be translated into something more visually compelling. There were key details that Branagh changed, though, without good cause. For one thing, the monster was supposed to be 8 feet tall and somewhat demonic in appearance. Branagh opted for a disfigured Robert DeNiro, presumably to save on special effects (or to avoid hiring a basketball player to play the part). In the book, the monster was quite articulate and we have a better understanding of his wretchedness and his wickedness. Numerous comparisons are made between the monster and Adam from The Bible, also the monster and Satan, the powerful fallen angel. Mary Shelley succeeded in simultaneously creating sympathy and revulsion for the brute, but Branagh completely failed to pull this off. He also ruined the romantic relationship between Victor and Elizabeth, which in the book started as deep admiration and built with some suspense and tension until it finally culminated in their marriage and her demise, but Branagh decided to have them fondling each other more or less within the first ten minutes of the film. The viewer is also forced to watch very exaggerated acting from most of the main characters (DeNiro manages to avoid this) as if they're trying to make up for the poor screenplay adaptation by overacting. In short, the only sense in which this was truly faithful to the original work was in that Branagh took bits and pieces of the original, breathed life into it, and created an abomination.