|
|
FRANKIE
Director: Ira Sachs Cast: Isabelle Huppert, Brendan Gleeson, Sennia Nanua, Jérémie Renier, Marisa Tomei, Ariyon Bakare, Vinette Robinson, Greg Kinnear, Pascal Greggory, Carloto Cotta MPAA
Rating: Running Time: 1:38 Release Date: 10/25/19 (limited); 11/1/19 (wider) |
|
Review by Mark Dujsik | October 31, 2019 A dying actress has organized a vacation for her family in Frankie. The movie, co-written and directed by Ira Sachs, tries to delve into the lives of all of these characters over the course of a single day. The attempt, although admirable, ends up undervaluing the possibilities of each character. Françoise Crémont (Isabelle Huppert), known as Frankie, likes to have things in order. Knowing that she will be dying soon after a devastating cancer diagnosis, Frankie wants to ensure that everyone is prepared for life after her, even as they try to enjoy a trip to Sintra, Portugal. Her husband Jimmy (Brendan Gleeson) is distraught. His daughter (from a previous marriage) Maya (Sennia Nanua) is thinking of divorcing her husband Ian (Ariyon Bakare), and Frankie's son Paul (Jérémie Renier), who is basically estranged from the rest of the family (for reasons that are explained in a weird story, told at an especially awkward moment), can't get his life together. Others on the vacation include Frankie's first husband and Paul's father Michel (Pascal Greggory), who is now in a happy relationship with a man and spends the movie sightseeing, and Ilene (Marsia Tomei), a hair stylist who worked with Frankie on a movie. One of Frankie's plans, in addition to explaining what's to be done with her estate, is to connect Paul and Ilene for a possible romance, but Ilene's accompanied by her boyfriend Gary (Greg Kinnear), who wants to take their relationship to the next stage. Sachs and co-writer Mauricio Zacharias set up these characters and, after some considerable delay, their various back stories, conflicts, and goals, but they seem to forget to find any drama among or within any of them. Each character more or less interacts with everyone else at one point or another, and the results, while pleasant thanks to the cast, are mostly empty. The reason, perhaps, is that Sachs has cast his net too wide. He's a generous filmmaker, for sure, who prefers such observational, naturalistic stories over those with a straightforward sense of conflict. Frankie definitely observes in a natural way, ending with an admittedly striking image that shows its cast of characters simultaneously together and separated. By that finale, though, we're no more attached to these characters, whose individual stories and development are lost for the sake of the group, than we were at the start. Copyright © 2019 by Mark Dujsik. All rights reserved. |
Buy Related Products
|
(for brief strong language and some sexual material)
