Movie Review: Frankie

Frankie ** ½ / *****

Directed by: Ira Sachs.

Written by: Ira Sachs and Mauricio Zacharias.

Starring: Isabelle Huppert (Françoise Crémont, AKA Frankie), Sennia Nanua (Maya Andoh), Ariyon Bakare (Ian Andoh), Vinette Robinson (Sylvia Andoh), Jérémie Renier (Paul Gagne), Brendan Gleeson (Jimmy), Pascal Greggory (Michel Gagne), Carloto Cotta (Tiago Mirante), Ana Brandão (Luciana), Marisa Tomei (Ilene), Greg Kinnear (Gary), Manuel Sá Nogueira (Pedro), Máximo Francisco (Bento), Joana Cunha Ferreira (Joana), Júlia Guerra (Ermelinda). 

 

The family has gathered is the picturesque Portugal town of Sintra – beautiful mountains, old churches, cobblestone streets, etc. – all because Frankie (Isabelle Huppert) is dying. She had cancer a few years ago, and now it has come back, and spread – she likely won’t last out the year, but while she still can, she wants everyone is one place for a nice vacation. That is the premise of Ira Sachs’ Frankie – a perfectly pleasant, if dramatically inert, film in which characters talk a lot, but nothing ever really gets said, nothing gets resolved, it all just gets pushed a little further down the road. In that way, I suppose, the film is much like life – except in life the dialogue isn’t as stilted, and your small problems really do feel like big ones because they’re yours. Here, even the big problems don’t seem to matter very much.

 

Sachs has assembled a terrific cast, so even if the film goes nowhere, it’s a pleasurable nowhere. Huppert is one of the greatest actresses alive, and here she is playing, well, one of the greatest actresses alive. She’s there with her husband Jimmy (Brendan Gleeson – a fine actor, who is given little to do but look glum), her son Paul (Jérémie Renier), who is an asshole, but not an interesting one. There’s also Jimmy’s daughter Sylvia (Vinette Robinson), her husband Ian (Ariyon Bakare), who she is, once again, thinking of divorcing, and their daughter Maya (Sennia Nanua), who smartly, gets away from the family for an afternoon romance at the beach. There’s also Frankie’s friend Ilene (Marisa Tomei) – a film hairdresser, who was working in Spain on the new Star Wars movie, who Frankie thinks would make a good match for Paul, unaware that Ilene would be showing up with Gary (Greg Kinnear). Oh, and Frankie’s first husband Michel (Pascal Greggory), who only realized after the divorce that he was gay. And a tour guide shows up for a while to talk about his own strained marriage.

 

Frankie unfolds at a very leisurely pace, and essentially what happens is that the different characters pair up at various times, and have very meaningful conversations – unless of course, the conversations are anything but. Some of the characters don’t even know each other, but that won’t stop them. They go around and around – talking around Frankie’s illness, more than they talk of it, hinting at plans, but not committing to any of them, etc. It’s all very pleasant for the most part – although many of the monologues, and there are quite a few, end up sounding stilted – either because the actor (or character) isn’t a native English speaker, or because they’re poorly written, or perhaps both.

 

The film ends up feeling small and inconsequential. I’m not saying that every movie has to feel like some massive statement on some important topic, but you kind of want to feel as if the director has something to say, something to impart. In this case though, it doesn’t really feel like it. It feels more like Sachs and co-writer Mauricio Zacharias, came up with this scenario, enjoyed the location, enjoyed the characters and the actors, and just decided to shoot it all. It does have a great final shot – but as it was playing, I kept wondering when Frankie would do something, anything – and it never quite does.