Frankie

Frankie (Isabelle Huppert) is a dying French star. She organizes a family stay in Sintra, a sumptuous Portuguese seaside resort near Lisbon, the main purpose being an opportunity for all the remaining relatives to get closer and learn how to live together ... without her. I loved how she makes believe that she orchestrated a highly unlikely rapprochement between her son Paul (Jérémie Renier)) and her friend Irene (Marisa Tomei) while her objective is undoubtedly with other ones.

The making is probably excessively contemplative and the result is not as accomplished as Brooklyn Village (2016) also directed by Ira Sachs, all the characters suffering from an understandable but excessive temporal acedia. 5/6 of 10

Frankie (Isabelle Huppert) is having a holiday. A somewhat famous and somewhat rich actor she invites her family for their last outing together as due to her cancer she is not going to make it to Christmas. This is a modern family indeed, which involves her gay ex-husband (Pascal Greggory), her current Scottish hubby Jim (Brandon Gleeson), her stepdaughter and her son (who may or may not have feeling for each other) and a couple from New York Irene (Marisa Tomei) and Gary (Greg Kinnear) who have been summoned here for a reason.

For some it's a good day, for some it's heartbreaking, but for Frankie it may be just one of the few happy ones left...

Told without pathos and preaching this is a quiet reflective film about one strong woman facing her mortality and accepting that no matter what, the world will carry on without her.

Isabelle Huppert gives a great performance as usual, but here there's a feeling she brings in a little bit of her real self to the role. The ensemble of great actors is everything here and makes the patchwork of encounters and dialogues entertaining and meaningful.

FRANKIE may be considered a little dull, there are no comic situations, no great arguments, no characters to root for and hope that they achieve a certain goal. Frankie, just like the rest of her family, is only trying to get through a day and somehow we are very comfortable in their company, watching them wandering aimlessly through the picturesque Portuguese gardens and beaches. FRANKIE is worth watching for the performances and for the soothing feeling that may let you appreciate your life a little more.

In "Frankie", the eponymous French movie star (played by Isabelle Huppert) is dying of cancer and gathers her complex family and friends around her for one last 'family holiday' in the picturesque Portuguese town of Sintra. We follow the events of a single day of the vacation as frictions and back-stories of the players become more evident.

Positives:

• Sintra looks gorgeous: as a regular visitor to Portugal's Silver Coast, it's a place I've not yet visited. The cinematography of the region makes me want to change that.

• There are a couple of decent scenes in the movie: both involving the trustworthy Greg Kinnear: one involving him trying to sell a film idea to Frankie (who knows, but won't tell him, that she won't be around for it); and another with Kinnear and Tomei at their hotel.

Negatives:

• Where do I start.... the film is as dull as ditchwater!

-- A criticism I had of the otherwise impressive "Nomadland" was that the story arc of the leading character was shallow and not very compelling. The story arc here is a bloody straight line! Virtually nothing happens in the movie and it goes nowhere. Events occur as isolated snippets in the storyline. For example, the 'loss' of an expensive bracelet is randomly lobbed into the story, but then is never referenced back in any future narrative.

-- When the ending happened (which the illustrious Mrs Movie Man referred to as a "blessing") it was a non-event. The lady behind us in the cinema exclaimed "WHAT????". And I could understand her frustration.

• The direction is distinctly lacking. Aside from the couple of decent scenes (see above), most of the shots feel like first takes, with the actors doing read-throughs of the clunky script to try to work out how to best sell the lines. "OK, time to film it for real now". But director Sachs has already shouted "Cut and Print.... now who's for some more vinos and Pastel de Nata?"! Were they aiming for some sort of naturalistic fumbling of the character's conversations? For that's how it comes across, and it's just awful.

• The script feels like a wasted opportunity. The set-up should have been a good one for an intense drama. And there are flashes (merely flashes) of potential brilliance in there: a formative step-brother/step-sister incident is based around the film "Grease", which is mirrored (either cleverly or purely through coincidence!?) in the beach-side romance of Maya (Sennia Nanua) and Portuguese holiday-maker Pedro (Manuel Sá Nogueira). And does the homosexual Michel (Pascal Greggory) have his sights on Jimmy (Brendan Gleeson)? Or Tiago? Or both? None of these potentially interesting strands ever get tied down..

• Aside from the poor script and the poor direction, some of the acting performances are unconvincing. "The Girl with all the Gifts" was a fabulous film - it made my number 2 slot of 2016! And I called out young Sennia Nanua as "one to watch for the future" as the zombie girl at the heart of the film. Here she was 17 at the time of filming. But I'm afraid I just didn't find her convincing as the moody teen. (By the way, I only single her out, since I was so impressed with her previous performance: with the exception perhaps of Kinnear, Tomei and Carloto Cotta. None of the rest of the cast consistently shine either.)

Summary Thoughts: It's a real shame that my first visit back to the cinema was such a let-down. Ira Sachs is not a director I know, but he comes with a strong reputation (for 2016's "Little Men"). But here he delivers a plain stinker. I'm afraid this movie has a word associated with it, and the word is "Avoid".

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Director Ira Sachs (Kept the Lights On, Little Men, Forty Shades of Blue) wrote the screenplay with Mauricio Zacharias for this gentle whisper of a film that is one of the more subtle, visually impressive, and tender reflections on the subtleties of relationships and families to grace the screen.

Frankie (Isabelle Huppert) is a famous and much admired film actress who has gathered her dissipated family in Sintra, Portugal as a gesture of farewell: she is in Stage IV metastatic carcinoma. The ensemble includes her first husband Michel (Pascal Greggory) and her son by him Paul (Jérémie Renier), her present husband Jimmy (Brendan Gleeson) and his daughter Sylvia (Vinette Robinson) her husband Ian (Ariyon Bakare) and granddaughter Maya (Sennia Nanua), along with Frankie's longterm hairdresser (from films) friend Ilene (Marisa Tomei) who is with her co-worker Gary (Greg Kinnear). The interweaving of these interesting personalities creates intimate side stories as they gather in this picturesque locale, the home of a magical fountain of life. Frankie has envisioned the way she hopes old connections among this disparate group of people will correct, and while those ideas don't materialize, the mysteries of companionship and love continue to find their own destinies.

The spectacularly sensitive cinematography by Rui Poças and the special atmosphere the music of Schubert's Moments Musicaux and Debussy's Arabesques allow the film to be pensive and understated. The quiet prolonged ending of the film is worthy of awards, so well sculpted by director Sachs that it allows the messages of the film to absorb in stillness.

In an age when high tech CGI, noisy action, and crude physicality films dominate the screens, this little film is a gentle reminder of those aspects of living that deserve out appreciation.

As someone who can watch Brendan Gleeson in anything, this movie left me completely unmoved. None of the characters seemed to have their hearts in their roles. The 3-star rating is solely because Gleeson at least gave it a go. But I wouldn't be surprised if he's sorry he has this clunker on his resume.