Frantic «««
R, 120m. 1988
Cast & Credits: Harrison Ford (Dr. Richard Walker), Betty Buckley (Sondra Walker), Emmanuelle Seigner (Michelle), John Mahoney (Williams), Jimmie Ray Weeks (Shaap). Screenplay by Roman Polanski and Gerald Brach. Directed by Roman Polanski.
R, 120m. 1988
Cast & Credits: Harrison Ford (Dr. Richard Walker), Betty Buckley (Sondra Walker), Emmanuelle Seigner (Michelle), John Mahoney (Williams), Jimmie Ray Weeks (Shaap). Screenplay by Roman Polanski and Gerald Brach. Directed by Roman Polanski.
Director Roman Polanski’s Frantic reminded me of Alfred Hitchcock’s The Man Who Knew Too Much (1959) which starred James Stewart who, while vacationing with his family in Morocco, stumbled upon a conspiracy to kill a political activist and as a result, his son was kidnapped.
Frantic isn’t exactly a remake of The Man Who Knew Too Much but does exhibit some similarities. The picture stars Harrison Ford who plays Dr. Richard Walker; a brilliant heart surgeon who along with his wife, Sondra (Betty Buckley), are celebrating their ten year wedding anniversary in Paris.
In the tradition of Hitchcock’s classic suspense films, Polanski sets up the movie’s plot almost from the beginning when Sondra mysteriously disappears from their hotel room while Walker is taking a shower.
I won’t divulge the film’s surprises as to why she suddenly turns up missing, except to say that this is another one of those pictures where like The Man Who Knew Too Much, the stranger in a foreign land must find his wife with almost no help from the authorities. Walker, for example, can’t speak French and gets no assistance from officials at the American Embassy. They dismiss his wife’s disappearance saying perhaps she was out having an affair.
We’re talking about my wife here,” Walker says in a sarcastic tone. “You must be talking about yours.”
The only help he can rely on is a beautiful but reluctant young drug smuggler played by newcomer Emmanuelle Seigner who may know the reason why his wife has vanished. It eventually comes down to a cat-and-mouse game that brings the two into an underworld of Paris’ night life where thugs, hookers and drug dealers hang out in dark, artistic dance clubs. For a city, supposedly known for being a place of romance, Paris, in the film, comes out looking all gray and dreary.
Many directors like Polanski have attempted to imitate Hitchcock over the years with some success. When he made Body Double (1984) and The Untouchables (1987), director Brian De Palma incorporated suspense shots done in other movies. That is exactly what Polanski does here incorporating the same ideas from The Man Who Knew Too Much. In doing so, I felt maybe this was a sign of defeat that no director today can put us on edge the way Alfred Hitchcock did.
In a number of Hitchcock’s films, the director wanted us to continue guessing why his characters were caught in the most terrifying situations. He never gave away the surprise until maybe 30 or 40 minutes before the films ended.
The problem Frantic runs into is when Walker’s wife disappears. The whole time he is trying to figure out where she has gone, Sondra’s suitcase is sitting on the bed in the background. It takes Walker almost 30 or 45 minutes to figure out the reason his wife is missing has to do with what is inside the suitcase. Anyone paying close attention would have been able to figure this out within 15 minutes. I know I did. It is as if Polanski wants to give away the clues and allow us to figure out the reason before Walker does.
Still, what I liked most about the film was how Ford’s desperation was captured as in the scene where he talks on the phone long distance to his kids shortly after the incident. Walker tries his best not to make them think something is wrong but it is a struggle.
I am, however, beginning to think there is no one out there anymore who can make a movie with an edge-of-your-seat thriller. I keep hoping the day might come where I walk out of a suspense thriller saying, “Wow!!! I wasn’t expecting this.”
Today, mysteries like Frantic are thoughtful tributes to Hitchcock rather than movies with an original never-done-before premise.
©3/1/88
Frantic isn’t exactly a remake of The Man Who Knew Too Much but does exhibit some similarities. The picture stars Harrison Ford who plays Dr. Richard Walker; a brilliant heart surgeon who along with his wife, Sondra (Betty Buckley), are celebrating their ten year wedding anniversary in Paris.
In the tradition of Hitchcock’s classic suspense films, Polanski sets up the movie’s plot almost from the beginning when Sondra mysteriously disappears from their hotel room while Walker is taking a shower.
I won’t divulge the film’s surprises as to why she suddenly turns up missing, except to say that this is another one of those pictures where like The Man Who Knew Too Much, the stranger in a foreign land must find his wife with almost no help from the authorities. Walker, for example, can’t speak French and gets no assistance from officials at the American Embassy. They dismiss his wife’s disappearance saying perhaps she was out having an affair.
We’re talking about my wife here,” Walker says in a sarcastic tone. “You must be talking about yours.”
The only help he can rely on is a beautiful but reluctant young drug smuggler played by newcomer Emmanuelle Seigner who may know the reason why his wife has vanished. It eventually comes down to a cat-and-mouse game that brings the two into an underworld of Paris’ night life where thugs, hookers and drug dealers hang out in dark, artistic dance clubs. For a city, supposedly known for being a place of romance, Paris, in the film, comes out looking all gray and dreary.
Many directors like Polanski have attempted to imitate Hitchcock over the years with some success. When he made Body Double (1984) and The Untouchables (1987), director Brian De Palma incorporated suspense shots done in other movies. That is exactly what Polanski does here incorporating the same ideas from The Man Who Knew Too Much. In doing so, I felt maybe this was a sign of defeat that no director today can put us on edge the way Alfred Hitchcock did.
In a number of Hitchcock’s films, the director wanted us to continue guessing why his characters were caught in the most terrifying situations. He never gave away the surprise until maybe 30 or 40 minutes before the films ended.
The problem Frantic runs into is when Walker’s wife disappears. The whole time he is trying to figure out where she has gone, Sondra’s suitcase is sitting on the bed in the background. It takes Walker almost 30 or 45 minutes to figure out the reason his wife is missing has to do with what is inside the suitcase. Anyone paying close attention would have been able to figure this out within 15 minutes. I know I did. It is as if Polanski wants to give away the clues and allow us to figure out the reason before Walker does.
Still, what I liked most about the film was how Ford’s desperation was captured as in the scene where he talks on the phone long distance to his kids shortly after the incident. Walker tries his best not to make them think something is wrong but it is a struggle.
I am, however, beginning to think there is no one out there anymore who can make a movie with an edge-of-your-seat thriller. I keep hoping the day might come where I walk out of a suspense thriller saying, “Wow!!! I wasn’t expecting this.”
Today, mysteries like Frantic are thoughtful tributes to Hitchcock rather than movies with an original never-done-before premise.
©3/1/88
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