Frankie

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.

I can see many negative reviews and can easily understand why. It is not a fun movie. However It interested me quite a lot because it explores many obscure corners in one's life. This is somehow balanced with a beautiful site. I have not been to Portugal but did enjoy 'being there' for the duration on this story.

It was nice to see Brendan Gleeson whom I did not expect to see in a semi French story... Perhaps you'll appreciate this movie as well.

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.

As a Portuguese movie buff it delights me to no end to have such an incredible cast work in my home country. It really is a fantastic ensemble from very different parts of the world and from different eras and acting schools. You can imagine how disappointed I was when I finally got to see the movie. A very slow, soulless piece, with very little energy and absolutely no interest. And the biggest sin was that Ira Sachs gave all this wonderful and accomplished actors absolutely nothing to work from. Not even the beautiful imagery of Sintra could save this. What a shame and a wasted opportunity.

Audience REACTIONS at its North American PREMIERE: 😄😄😄😄😄😄😄(7 laughs) 😢(sadish bit)

Frankie (Ira Sachs) is a psychoanalytical film centred around a classical Isabelle Huppert performance. She explained at TIFF that she is a slightly different person in her performance because she predominantly speaks English instead of her native French. The director revealed that the characters were written for the actors and it truly resulted in a well balanced film.

Perhaps the biggest star in this attractive work is the Sintra landscape in Portugal. This daylight film is a movement throughout a quaint town, magical forest, and quiet mountaintop. Embracing silence, the film makes the eclectic feel familiar in few words. This film is not for everyone because the pacing will lose the attention of those who enjoy fast moving or action based movies. While the film is slow, it is slow in a beautiful way. Frankie is exceptionally stunning as a visual work of art. #filmreactiviews