Marisa Tomei and Isabelle Hubbert in “Frankie”. Photo Credit: Sony Pictures Classics
‘Frankie’ serves too many ordinary slices in this slice-of-life picture
Directed by: Ira Sachs
Written by: Ira Sachs and Mauricio Zacharias
Starring: Isabelle Huppert, Brendan Gleeson, Marisa Tomei, Greg Kinnear, and Vinette Robinson
“Frankie” – Lush and picturesque, Sintra is a luxurious destination city and filled with beautiful views and rich history. Located in the Portuguese Riviera, it’s a coastal home to royal palaces and castles, and after a few days, tourists might feel like kings and queens.
Francoise Cremont (Isabelle Huppert) – known as Frankie to everyone – is not a queen but a famous actress. She also proudly carries the title of matriarch and calls her family to the aforementioned community for a reunion of sorts. She has her reasons, and director/co-writer Ira Sachs will reveal them, but other than the eventual audience-clarity of Frankie’s motivation, this movie - unfortunately - is a nonevent.
This comes as a total surprise, because Sachs recently delivered an involved, layered tale of friendship in the New York City drama “Little Men” (2016), and his new picture attracts a terrific ensemble cast with Huppert, Brendan Gleeson, Marisa Tomei, Greg Kinnear, and Jeremie Renier.
Taking place over one day, “Frankie” is a slice-of-life film that doubles and triples down on its everyday-event concept. Despite Sachs teeing up several appealing characters, they simply converse about their issues, and the screenplay rarely advances towards any resolutions.
Moviegoers are left with 98 minutes of mundane exposition with no oomph to push the narrative forward. Every character seems terribly bored, and the mood may become contagious in a theatre near you.
Although, the film feels just fine at the very beginning. It’s early morning, and Frankie jumps in a swimming pool. After happily discarding her top, she feels free from concern, a moment of contentment. Such moments, however, are extremely few and far between for Frankie or anyone else in this picture.
Frankie’s stepdaughter Sylvia (Vinette Robinson) has marital problems.
Our lead protagonist asks her hairdresser/make-up artist Ilene (Tomei) to fly to Portugal in the hopes of setting up her single, detached son Paul (Renier). Since Ilene was unaware of Frankie’s matchmaking attempts, she brought her boyfriend Gary (Kinnear) along, but after a few hours, she wishes that she hadn’t.
Meanwhile, Frankie’s husband Jimmy (Gleeson) seems distracted, and her first husband Michel (Pascal Greggory) makes the trip to Sintra too.
Sachs hops between the various characters, as they drone on about their problems and wander about the resort and surrounding city. Sometimes Sachs takes advantage of the setting, as Sylvia’s daughter Maya (Sennia Nanua) heads to a beautiful beach, and Frankie hikes on a winding, unpaved path through a heavily wooded forest. In fact, Huppert pulls off quite a feat: she treads along the turns, inclines, slippery branches, and leaves in high platform heels with the greatest of ease.
Perhaps, Frankie was a runway model in a past life?
Well, Isabelle did have some notable, model-like costume changes, as Frankie wore a rainbow-striped top in the morning, a long, shiny purple skirt in the afternoon and an orange one in the early evening. Frankie’s outfits really popped, so credit Isabelle’s costume designer Khadija Zeggai for her sense of fashion.
Then again, if Frankie’s attire is the most provoking element of the movie, that’s a problem.
(1.5/4 stars)
Jeff – a member of the Phoenix Critics Circle – has penned film reviews since 2008, graduated from ASU’s Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and is a certified Rotten Tomatoes critic. Follow Jeff and the Phoenix Film Festival on Twitter @MitchFilmCritic and @PhoenixFilmFest, respectively.
