CAST BREATHES LIFE INTO STULTIFYING ‘FRANKIE’
“Frankie” isn’t a movie about movies, but it ends up being a movie about movie stars. The lead character, Francoise, nicknamed Frankie, is a glamorous aging French actress, played by one in Isabelle Huppert. Frankie’s best friend Ilene (Marisa Tomei) and boyfriend Gary (Greg Kinnear) are working on the new “Star Wars” film.
But again, Ira Sach’s gentle, chill film — a bit too chill, actually — is not about movies but about three generations of a fractured, multiracial, multi-continental family gathering in the picturesque seaside resort town of Sintra, Portugal, to honor their matriarch, who is dying of cancer.
And yet, it’s not about that either. All the characters are lost in their preoccupations and, in a film set over the course of a single day, they meander around, lie in bed, get lost on lonely trails and mope in corners. For all the visual beauty around them, they are so self-absorbed they might as well be in Plainfield, Ind.
Also in Sintra are Frankie’s unmarried son Paul (Jérémie Renier), her daughter Sylvia (Vinette Robinson) along with her husband Ian (Ariyon Bakare) and their daughter Maya (Sennia Nanua); and, in what can be described only as so French, both Frankie’s current husband Jimmy (Brendan Gleeson) and first husband Michel (Pascal Greggory).
There are, of course, relationship problems. Sylvia wants a divorce from Ian. They discuss this, politely. Greg proposes to Ilene, but she’s not sure. Eventually they discuss this, politely.
“Frankie” never takes a risk, never explores the characters’ problems in any meaningful way; it feels all surface.
This is one of those movies where so many scenes are contrived, where characters complete their thoughts as other characters enter as if on cue; characters who need to escape find a convenient streetcar or a bus full of tourists to act as cover; and walking alone in the forest only ensures that you meet the next person the story requires you to meet.
There’s a scene late in the film where Ilene and Paul talk — Frankie thinks her son would be perfect for her best friend — and the scene is so ridiculously scripted it would be laughable — except that it’s not. That’s because Oscar-winner Tomei and Renier sell it, the way good actors do.
And that’s why “Frankie” is ultimately about movie stars. Specifically, its movie stars. It becomes somewhat pleasantly watchable because the muddled script and dangling storylines are delivered and explored by truly charismatic actors who can, at least for awhile, breathe life into something where none existed.
Even if they’re moping in a corner.