The Wind Rises (PG)
Loosely based on late comedian and musician Chris Sievey’s character Frank Sidebottom, is Lenny Abrahamson’s first real ‘big movie’ after and Its themes of identity, music and mental illness are explored in a touching and delightfully madcap way, but overall, Frank doesn’t engage on quite the same level as Abrahamson’s previous works have done.
Domhnall Gleeson plays Jon, an aspiring young musician and songwriter who dreams of escaping his boring day job by writing the perfect song. He can’t believe it when a band, in town for a gig, suddenly find themselves in need of a keyboard player.
The Soronprfbs, an unpronounceable American pseudo-psychedelic drone improv rock band (whose members include an optimistic Scoot McNairy and a caustic Maggie Gyllenhaal) have lost their keyboard player to a sudden bout of mental illness in the middle of their tour.
Before Jon can come to terms with the oddball lead singer and the band’s enigmatic creative force Frank (a charismatic frontman who wears an oversized pâpier maché head played with characteristic courage by Michael Fassbender), he is suddenly whisked away to a rented house in rural Ireland – not to play a gig, but to help the band record their debut album.
‘You’re just going to have to go with this,’ is the advice given to Jon when presented with the chaos that is Frank’s creative process.
That same advice can be extended to the film’s audience, who might be expecting a tighter, more focused story.
But Frank is its own thing. It likes to wander about and explore themes such as mental illness, the cult of personality, artistic excess and the
importance of sticking to one’s vision. It could be about all these things. It might not be about any of them. The script is loosely based on the memoir of journalist Jon Ronson who used to play in a band in Manchester whose lead singer also wore an oversized pâpier maché head.
It is co-written by Peter Straughan, who also wrote the screenplay for Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy – and if there is one thing we learned from that film it is that more will reveal itself with further viewing. Gleeson, still channelling his inner Hugh Grant after About Time, is as charming as