'Gods and Monsters'

This movie about the life of 'Frankenstein' director James Whale is largely fictionalized, but it rings true in its depiction of a World War I veteran still haunted by combat memories 40 years later. Whale (in a towering performance by Ian McKellen) is unique among veterans in movies in two respects: he's an artist who's wartime memories inspired some of the horrors depicted in his art, and he's an openly gay man whose lover was a casualty in the trenches. Like Billy Pilgrim in 'Slaughterhouse-Five,' Whale has come unstuck in time and finds his vivid but terrifying past mingling with his bland present, but he's tragically far less able to cope with his post-traumatic stress.