Frankie

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

Greetings again from the darkness. Sintra is a resort town in Portugal, not far from Lisbon. It is breathtakingly beautiful with mountains, beaches, cliffs, colorful gardens and a picturesque town filled with charming churches and majestic castles. Writer-director Ira Sach's film probably should have been bank-rolled by Sintra's tourism committee, because the town is surely to be on the must-see travel list of every person who sees this movie. Unfortunately, what works as a travel tease, offers little else as a cinematic or entertainment vehicle.

Beloved French actress Isabelle Huppert stars as beloved French actress Francois, better known as Frankie. She has organized a vacation gathering for her modern day family consisting of her second and current husband, Scotsman Jimmy (Brendan Gleeson), her first husband, gay man Michel (Pascal Gregory), teenage granddaughter Maya (Sennia Nanua) and Maya's two quarrelling parents Ian (Ariyon Bakare) and Sylvia (Vinette Robinson), and Frankie's self-centered and problematic son Paul (Jeremie Renier). Also invited is Ilene (Marisa Tomei), Frankie's long-time friend and hair stylist, who without telling Frankie, brought along a date, cinematographer Gary (Greg Kinnear). When someone complains about her inviting Ilene, Frankie replies, think of it as "Family Plus One."

Frankie has arranged this trip under the guise of 'a final goodbye'. Her cancer has returned, and it's likely to take her life very soon. Despite that, it really appears Frankie is acting as a matchmaker for her jerky son Paul, by thinking he and the delightful Ilene might be a good fit ... you know, since she lives in New York and he's moving there. This speaks to the blindness of parents towards their own kids, but also the never-ending hope for their happiness. During this trip, we witness one of the most awkward proposals ever, plus a re-telling of a family secret at a most inopportune time. The latter is likely the most interesting segment of the movie.

Ira Sachs and his writing partner Mauricio Zacharias are known for NYC-based stories like LITTLE MEN (2016) and LOVE IS STRANGE (2014), so this idyllic setting is a bit outside their wheelhouse. We listen in on many awkward conversations, and the film involves mostly walking and talking ... with a high percentage of it being Frankie hiking on trails while wearing heels. There is an effective cloud of sadness over most every moment, and the overload of melancholy represents the struggles of this group getting through a single day. Somehow even the beautiful final shot doesn't deliver any more emotional impact than the rest of the film. There just isn't much here other than what most of us regularly experience in life ... well, other than Sintra as a setting.

I saw 'Frankie' today (Oct. 6, 2019) at the Mill Valley Film Festival. A more slow-moving, uninteresting film would be hard to find. Other critics of the film have done a good job of laying out the plot, so I won't take up your time. My low rating is based on the low (lowest) energy that this film puts out. It is as though no one has the energy to show emotion. As though the Portugal heat has had its effect on everyone. But more than anything else the film runs as though it were a table-read; actors with script in hand, doing a first read at a table. The camera work is leisurely at best. This could be a TV soap-opera episode as easily as a theatrical film.

And for that there's no excuse.

Then why, you might ask, the four stars. For Ms. Tomei and Mrs. Hupert, that's why.

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.

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 Melhores Amigos (2016) also directed by Ira Sachs, all the characters suffering from an understandable but excessive temporal acedia. 5/6 of 10