Frantic

source: Frantic

Trailer—Frantic

Frantic

Frantic is indeed a unique film. Harrison Ford stars in this picture. Its directed quite well by veteran director Roman Polanski. The two actresses that are in this movie Betty Buckley and Emmanuelle Seigner act very well. The film has other familiar faces as well. The music composed by veteran movie score composer Ennio Morricone is really good and matches this flick perfectly! Its a great score! The movie is filled with great dialog and acting from its actors in some very interesting scenes and the movie has a powerful first thirty minutes or so. The movie really takes a turn later on. This must be the most different type of film Harrison Ford has ever been in. If you love Harrison Ford then check out Frantic!

It's not Polanski's best, but he's been off his game for 20 years, so we should be happy he delivered as decent a film as this one. Eschewing large doses of violence, Polanski manages to weave a fairly taut and interesting story of mixed up suitcases. Until the films Hollywood ending it's most enjoyable, the major problem being the presence of Roman's gal pal Seigner in the role of the beautiful smuggler who will steal your heart away....oops, must have been quoting from the Hollywood pressbook there. Anyway, Frantic is worth seeing if you like tales of intrigue, or Harrison Ford, who is really quite good.

...is that they are thoroughly unlike those standard Hollywood flicks where the endings are happy, the baddies get punished or die, and no animals ever get harmed during production: despite all the "Hollywood Babylon" clichés, the stench of moralistic fiction rising from its Studios is normally unbearable. Not here. Has anyone noticed the regret in Harrison Ford's eyes, just before the movie's end? He hugs his dutifully rescued bland wife, and fighting back his tears he whispers "I love you baby". Alas, not to her: to the soul of the fragile, exciting, dangerous, scandalous little drifter who died in his arms; and to the brief dash of "walking on the wild side" that, for a few precious days, brought excitement - and guilt feelings, given the circumstances - in an otherwise very respectable and utterly boring life. Those who can't connect with that, can always watch Harrison Ford in films directed by Steven Spielberg.

Dr. Richard Walker (Harrison Ford) is in Paris with his wife Sondra (Betty Buckley) for a medical conference. The last time was their honeymoon 20 years ago. They check into the hotel and discover that they've got the wrong bag. While he's in the shower, his wife gets a call and disappears. It's a struggle to be taken seriously even after he finds her broken bracelet. It seems like she's run off with some guy. He finds a phone number written on a matchbook in the incorrect suitcase. He starts investigating on his own and encounters Michelle (Emmanuelle Seigner). This is a great Roman Polanski film. It has the Hitchcockian feel. It's an everyman played very well by Ford who is caught up in a world that he has no concept of. The start is Kafkaesque. It's filled with paranoia. Then Emmanuelle Seigner shows up. She's a classic femme fatale. The movie is a great thriller.

A great suspense movie of Roman Polanski in a Hitchcockian style. One of the beloved theme of great master is already here: looking for a vanished person. I think Frantic is one of the movies more successful through the films with the plot located in Paris. Polanski tells us the story with great suspense involving the city of Paris like a character of the film. All movie spends on the Parisian places and rooftops. The music of Ennio Morricone also is a great element of the film success that gives us a great mood. The characters as Harrison Ford and Emmanuel Seigne are superb in their roles too. I think a must see movie if you love great oeuvres of Hitchcock and you love Paris.

The title does not 100 percent reflect the atmosphere of the film. Yes, as Ford's character rummages through a strange city looking for his kidnapped wife he does become "frantic", it is in a very quiet fashion. No screaming or fits of hysterics, but you can sense it in Ford's acting. Speaking of acting, this film is almost all Ford and Emmanuelle Seigner, very few of the supporting characters make much of a mark here. For me, the most intriguing part is the almost total lack of chemistry between those two characters. Though they are in most of the second half of the film together, neither one cares a rip about the other's wish (him=to get his wife back, her=to get her money). But if you think about it, how much would a young, drug-pushing European girl and a middle-aged, successful American doctor have in common anyway? Theirs is an inspired pairing, and a very good movie is the result. Watch this one.