Movie Review: Frank And Lola (2016)

A romantic drama, Frank And Lola delves into issues of deep-rooted jealousy, sexual adventurism and the damage of the past catching up with the present.

In Las Vegas, struggling chef Frank Reilly (Michael Shannon) and aspiring fashion designer Lola (Imogen Poots) are involved in a passionate relationship. He has issues of trust, and resents her finding a job at the fashion incubator house owned by the charismatic and rich Keith Winkleman (Justin Long).

Lola confesses to a one night stand, and also reveals a troubled past involving being raped in Paris by a man named Alan. Frank travels to Paris to compete for a new restaurant chef position, and takes the opportunity to track down Alan (Michael Nyqvist). He discovers an unexpectedly complex web of sexual and emotional relationships.

A dark and often disconcerting drama, Frank And Lola confidently strides into the psyche of a disturbed couple. Writer and director Matthew Ross is interested in disrupting conventions and challenging expectations. As Lola and Frank repeatedly disappoint and lie to each other, the character reactions are exceptionally unexpected. An undercurrent of self-hate and low self-esteem permeates the film, which often means a flickering love, no matter how imperfect, is the best available option.

And yet this is a difficult film to enjoy, due to the absence of any notionally likeable or even capable characters. Lola and Frank are not shy about admitting their deep-seated faults, and they are unreliable, mean and prone to atrocious misjudgments. The layered deceptions become tiresome, and eventually almost nothing said can be trusted, the film teetering on a decrepit foundation. The origins and essence of the love between Frank and Lola, fundamental to carry them through the severe turbulence, are missing.

Ross uses quick scene transitions, sleek settings and plenty of night-time filming with intense lighting to explore themes of control, possession and barely contained envy. Frank is older than Lola, and while the sexual chemistry between them is strong, he has trouble tolerating any of her interactions with other men. Her new boss Keith is the target of his initial wrath, but Alan emerges from the past as a formidable opponent. And Frank finds much more than he bargained for once he tracks Alan down, an awakening to how intense and gripping a twisted love can be, fuelled by a whole different relationship paradigm.

Michael Shannon and Imogen Poots are suitably intense and often anguished, hinting at lives struggling to rise above years of unmet expectations and self-destructive behaviour. Michael Nyqvist adds a dash of continental smarm as a man indulging his fantasies but still consumed by a powerful passion. In Frank And Lola commitment comes in different guises, all of them complex.

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Movie Review: The Girl Who Kicked The Hornets' Nest (2009)

A reasonably satisfying conclusion to the movie adaptation of Stieg Larsson's book trilogy, The Girl Who Kicked The Hornets' Nest ties up most of the loose ends. That it requires almost 150 minutes to do so illustrates just how many plot threads needed to be picked up, and some remain scattered at the end regardless (remember the human trafficking and prostitution sub-plot from The Girl Who Played With Fire? It's nowhere to be found).

After the bloody conclusion of the previous episode, The Girl Who Kicked The Hornets' Nest opens with both Lisbeth Salander (Noomi Rapace) and her father Zalachenko being rushed to hospital. Lisbeth is suffering from three bullet wounds, one to her skull, while Zalachenko is dealing with the nasty effects of an axe swing, courtesy of Lisbeth.

The existence of a secretive pseudo government group called The Section is soon revealed. Formed in the 1970s, The Section was responsible for protecting Zalachenko, the most high level Soviet spy to defect to Sweden. Subsequent governments lost track of The Section and Zalachenko: he became a master criminal, with The Section protecting him from any scrutiny or prosecution. But from his hospital bed, Zalachenko pushes his luck with The Section: they in turn dispatch him once and for all with a bullet to the head. An attempt on Lisbeth's life fails, but with the help of the slimy Dr. Teleborian, a plot is set in motion to put her on trial, declare her insane, and lock her up for good.

Meanwhile investigative reporter Mikael Blomqvist (Michael Nyqvist) has pieced together the story of Lisbeth and Zalachenko, and prepares a major expose of the whole sordid affair, to be published in Millennium magazine. Mikael also remotely helps Lisbeth to document her story from her hospital bed, and he secures the services of his sister Annika as Lisbeth's lawyer.

With both The Girl Who Kicked The Hornets' Nest and The Girl Who Played With Fire, the aftertaste is that of movies stumbling by trying to capture all the book details, the same flaw that so hampered the adaptation of The Da Vinci Code. The reading experience can afford a multitude of characters and interesting sub-quests; the movie experience demands more focus and a much more streamlined narrative, and the screenplay needs to be brave enough to compact the story down to a suitable screen experience, as Angels And Demons more successfully demonstrated.

The Girl Who Kicked The Hornets' Nest is the least action-oriented and most talkative of the three movies. This is not a bad thing: it brings the story of Lisbeth down to a real nitty-gritty of hospitalization, treatment, and law courts, and a bit away from any further dramatic rapes, tortures and murders for the poor girl to suffer through.

But with so much plot to chew and digest, director Daniel Alfredson has no time for anything else. The stylish coolness and tension of The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo is long gone, replaced by the most straightforward of narrative driven films, hacking away at the intertwined overgrowth of characters in a sweaty rush to reach the conclusion.

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Movie Review: The Girl Who Played With Fire (2009)

Too much plot and too many loose ends, The Girl Who Played With Fire suffers from the Middle Chapter of the Trilogy Syndrome. Not as fresh as the original and unable to arrive at any conclusions, it's a rickety bridge between the crisp opening and the decisive ending of Stieg Larsson's The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo series.

Young and enthusiastic reporter Dag Svensson and his girlfriend Mia are investigating human smuggling and the European prostitution trade. They have an explosive story on their hands, exposing corruption at the highest levels. Dag joins the staff of the investigative Millennium magazine, where the legendary Mikael Blomqvist (Michael Nyqvist) works, to polish off the story and prepare it for publication.

Meanwhile Lisbeth Salander (Noomi Rapace) returns to Stockholm from some globe-trotting to reconnect with her lover Miriam Wu (Yasmine Garbi), and to intimidate her state-appointed guardian and former torturer Bjurman. To scare him into promptly filing his reports about her good behaviour, Lisbeth threatens Bjurman with his own gun. But Bjurman is tired of Salander controlling him (she has a blackmail tape), and contacts shady associates to solve his Lisbeth problem.

Before long, Mikael finds both Dag and Mia shot dead; the murder gun belongs to Bjurman and carries Lisbeth's fingerprints, making her the prime suspect in a double murder. She stays hidden, disguised and beyond the clutches of the law, but her case isn't helped when Bjurman also shows up dead. Mikael is convinced that Lisbeth is being set up, and launches his own investigation to help clear her name.

The performances of Rapace and Nyqvist are the main positives in an otherwise overcrowded and clumsy film. Rapace is all delightful darkness, a woman who long since abandoned trust in the system and invented her rules for survival. Nyqvist as Mikael Blomqvist balances some conformance to society's rules with a natural tendency to do his own thing in his own world weary way.

Beyond these two performances, The Girl Who Played With Fire suffers from a multitude of characters introduced in a hurry and never properly fleshed out, and a runaway plot that features numerous developments trickling in all directions, most of which are left hanging. There is no satisfying resolution to the three murders that propel the action, and the entire human trafficking and prostitution plot is introduced with great enthusiasm and then simply abandoned. Director Daniel Alfredson is unable to even pretend that this episode is anything other than a pass-through to what should be a much better ending to the story.

The movie is also hampered by extremely limited interaction between Lisbeth and Mikael. They exchange a few e-mails and share a single non-communicative scene at the very end: their complex relationship is at the heart of the drama, and the Ulf Ryberg screenplay basically puts it on ice for over two hours.

The Girl Who Played With Fire is an overstuffed meal, too many ingredients competing for attention, and delivering an unsatisfying, bloated and burp inducing experience.

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