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Wednesday, July 8, 2009

BD impressions: Franklyn

1:39 PM / BD Impressions / 3 Comments

Can you tell I'm on holiday? I'm positively barrelling through my "to watch" pile. I'm back to work on Saturday so I'm making the most of what little time I have left.

A quote on the front cover of Franklyn describes it as "as if The Matrix met Donnie Darko", which is rather misleading. I can more or less see a tenuous Matrix connection, in that part of the film takes place in a dark police state controlled by sinister forces, but the Donnie Darko part has me scratching my head...

Anyway, the action unfolds in two completely different worlds. In modern day London, where a father (Bernard Hill) is looking for his missing son, a recently jilted young man (Sam Riley) is trying to rediscover his purpose in life, and an eccentric art student (Eva Green) embarks on a project which involves her filming her own repeated suicide attempts, the purpose of which she is unable to articulate. Meanwhile, in the fantasy world of Meanwhile City, a masked private detective (Ryan Phillippe), the only atheist in a city fuelled by religious mania, sets out to assassinate a cult leader called "the Individual", responsible for the murder of a young girl. As the cliché goes, all is not as it seems, and fantasy blends with reality as the two worlds become intertwined.

First-time writer/director Gerald McMorrow has crafted an interesting premise and has ambition to spare (I'm still trying to work out how he pulled off a film of this scale with only $12 million at his disposal), not to mention a terrific visual eye, which is fortunate given that in many ways he tries to do too much and as a result isn't entirely successful. My brother, who watched the film with me, was less impressed by it than I was, feeling that the connection between the two worlds was too tenuous and that the narrative failed to come together in a meaningful way. I disagree, but only to an extent. I was certainly impressed by McMorrow's vision and what he aimed to accomplish, but couldn't help thinking that, in terms of connecting the narratives and rationalising what was going on, I was having to do a lot of the work that the film should have been doing. A number of elements seem somewhat displaced, particularly with regard to the role of the Sam Riley character, which feels more incidental than I suspect was McMorrow's aim.

The terrific cinematography by Ben Davis, and Joby Talbot's grandiose score (which reminded me a great deal of Danny Elfman's collaborations with Tim Burton), give the film a rich feel and distract from the narrative failings to a degree, but unfortunately the casting of Ryan Phillippe as the atheist avenger, Jonathan Preest (see what they did there?), is a major problem. He's a bland presence, whether masked or not, and tends to indulge in the same sort of monotonous, gravel-voicing growling that set my teeth on edge in The Dark Knight. The scenes in Meanwhile City are filled wall-to-wall with his narration, which a lot of the time seems completely unnecessary. On the plus side, Bernard Hill is very effective as the grieving father, while Eva Green does what she always does and steals the show. She has the ability to command your attention simply by stepping into frame, a rare talent that has served her well in everything in which she has appeared - even Casino Royale, a particularly impressive feat given that Bond girls are not exactly known for for their three-dimensional characterisation. (Her best work for my money remains her arresting - and extremely brave - screen debut in Bernardo Bertolucci's The Dreamers.)

I'm going to make a prediction that Franklyn will become a cult classic. Gerald McMorrow is undoubtedly a name to watch, and I look forward to giving the film another look at some point in the future, knowing in advance what the outcome is and therefore able to pay more attention to the subtleties that no doubt passed me by on my first viewing.

E1 Entertainment have put together a decent disc for this Region B UK release. The image isn't the most detailed I've ever seen, but it looks natural and I don't see any sign of digital tampering. Blacks are deep, and the deliberately cold colour palette is reproduced well. Despite the fairly low bit rate, I didn't notice anything in the way of compression artefacts. 9/10

Franklyn
studio: E1 Entertainment; country: UK; region code: B; codec: AVC;
file size: 17.3 GB; average bit rate (including audio): 25.35 Mbit/sec

3 Comments

 
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