Review of Frantic (1988) by Jose Luis M — 19 Oct 2014

Review In A Nutshell:

I think every director, once in their career, would want to create a thriller film, and when they do the element that would instantaneously appear on their minds would be Alfred Hitchcock. Frantic is Roman Polanski's Hitchcockian thriller film, featuring the typical male and female leads and a story that would take these two individual to a highly climactic conclusion. Frantic, for the most part achieves in its ability to thrill its audience but it lacks substance in its central character relationships and features a heavy theme that only exposes itself during the final moments of the film.

Frantic features a simple plot of a man who is searching for his wife, and in this search he finds himself surrounded and involved with the dark depths and figures of Paris. I do not want to give too much away of the plot as I think the great thing about watching a thriller, is that you never know how it would go. I never at a point felt like I could predict Frantic's conclusion, because Polanski successfully begins the film with a sense of intimacy that eventually draws itself out as the mystery slowly unfolds itself. Once the film's driving complication is in motion, Polanski creates this sense of fear and anxiety of our protagonist, due to his position in a foreign environment and lacking the resources that he requires reach his goal; this certainly resonated well with me as Polanski was able to create fear out of something, the audience cannot see. The film manages to get inside its protagonist, exposing him with subtlety; this is an aspect that many directors found to be difficult, therefore needing to explain to their audience all the time in order to convey the filmmaker's intentions. The director also managed to give us something to react to in its surface, particularly sequences during the middle chapters of the film that held such mystery and suspense that I found myself completely drawn in to the situation and its atmosphere.

Though I pleasantly enjoyed Polanski's Frantic, this was certainly one of his most hollow films I have seen. It doesn't seem to speak about something, and when it does during its conclusion, it lacks any heavy effect as the events that preceded it, lacked focus on the particular subject. Roman Polanski has achieved greatly in creating a terrifying and palpable atmosphere in Rosemary's Baby, and I expected to experience the same here with Frantic. The director had the opportunity to create something similar for Frantic, but he seemed to be more concerned with the performances of his actors and the capturing the narrative, that he seems to have forgotten the technical aspects of it.

The film also barely delivers any real substance in the chemistry between the two leading characters. I hoped that their relationship with each other would bring out sides of them that would at least reflect on why they are able to work well with another or why one feels safe with the other person's presence. Though in saying all of this, I cannot state that I found the characters dull or uninteresting, because the performances that were given to these roles were strong. It was definitely pleasant to see Harrison Ford play a character that was within reach, as most of his iconic roles are figures who naturally possesses talent that would have them easily break out of a tough situation, here Ford's role is always at the mercy of others, and could only do so much to reach his goal. Ford was paired up with the fresh Emmanuelle Siegner, who represents the typical Hitchcockian blonde, that actually plays a large role in Ford's search and even when danger strikes, she is not completely reliant on Ford to save her; she is an individual who knows what she wants and will do what she can in order to get it.

Frantic brings enough of its plot to keep me entertained all the way through, but due to its lack of thematic substance, I find it difficult to see myself further enjoying it. Though, who knows?, maybe I'm wrong.