christinedbeatty

Take two parts of Twister, one of Day After Tomorrow, and add a huge jumble of hackneyed, drama, and you have this mini-series. The contrived plot directly rips off the earlier films, which also felt contrived-just not so obviously. The televangelist angle was interesting if it weren't carried to such an unbelievable plot twist. The machine-gun pace of some of the editing, obviously used to camouflage the lack of a big CGI budget, also sought to increase the excitement but becomes tedious very quickly.

Even the presence of some big-name, talented actors cannot save the bad writing and directing, and it makes me wonder: were all of these fine actors cast at gunpoint or were they facing a mortgage balloon payment when the casting folks called?

Total honesty: I bought the used DVD at Blockbuster because it stars Gina Gershon, who is far, far better than this material. Gina, this was even worse than Showgirls, but I forgive you for it. Everybody has bills to pay.

Cirio H. Santiago managed to churn out one B-flick I actually enjoyed, 1981's Firecracker with martial artist who wasn't afraid to go nude, Jillian Kesner. She knew EXACTLY what kind of film she was in and committed to it, not to mention she could act as well as fight.

Were it only The Sisterhood even 1/10th as good. Poor acting, directing and dialogue requires at least some sort of offset such as convincing action, dazzling pyro, generous nudity/sex or some actual drama. Nearly everything felt so contrived or phoned-in that it had no impact.

After seeing Fixing Frank as a FISA screener I contacted the director to ask it was slated for DVD distribution and a film this good belonged in my library. It asks with attempting to definitively answer powerful and thorny questions about identity and desire; it smacks of integrity to present these questions and leave it to the viewer.

I would loved to have seen the play, but I believe I got an excellent feel for it with how it was presented as a triad, with the two therapists fighting over Frank's very identity. The depiction of one of the men in Frank's mind while he spoke with the other dramatized the psychological tug of war with artful cinematography choices. It had moments of humor, pathos and drama that engaged from beginning to end.

Fixing Frank brought an important and relevant play to people who might never get a chance to see it. It got me asking questions I thought for certain were already answered, and it never left me with a moment of boredom or irritation with the filmmaker.