Franklyn (2008)

Wonderful character development!

I really wanted to like this movie. I feel terribly cynical trashing it, and that's why I'm giving it a middling 5. Actually, I'm giving it a 5 because there were some superb performances.

what a terribly boring film. I'm sorry but this is absolutely not deserving of best picture and will be forgotten quickly. Entertaining and engaging cinema? No. Nothing performances with flat faces and mistaking silence for subtlety.

The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

Oh gods, this movie was awful. I give it a middling score as it was in certain parts visually compelling and there was nothing wrong with the acting, but it was poorly edited and paced, thought it was a lot smarter than it was, and made not a lick of sense.This seems to be a movie designed to defend itself with cries of 'it's so artistic' or 'it's not a dumb popcorn action movie', but I like slow movies, clever movies, and this was neither of those things. It's plot meanders about with cuts that make little sense, the emotion doesn't hit home, and while it is not incumbent on a movie to raise questions and then answer them (sometimes the point is there is not an answer, at least not a clear one), that's an artistic decision that needs intelligence and skill to pull off, and the movie lacked both, at least when it came to storytelling.There's enough hope at the start for something to tie it all together into something that might be decent, I was intrigued, and I'm fine with a slow pace, but what did come together in the end was a mess without emotional impact.Sorry if this all sounds harsh, perhaps despite my protestations to the contrary I am merely an uncultured barbarian who cannot appreciate the deep themes that were being aimed for...but I find it hard to credit the movie enough to think that. Self indulgent, it probably made sense in the writer's head as a character portrait set against a fantastical metaphorical backdrop, but on the screen the story was not compelling, the character's not given enough to work with to be interesting, the attempt to weave the settings together was clunky, and not enough was done to justify why this tale needed it.

I really wanted to like this film. It has all the elements i love in film, EVA GREEN! Gothic and neo noir style, beautiful visuals and an intriguing beginning. It does however have a major flaw, i could not connect with this ever convoluted plot. It was irrational and nonsensical and tried to hard to be clever delivering any sort of rationale for the final 5 minutes. Which means sitting through a movie that functions as a puzzle that never really materializes. It certain is unique, and it did have potential. But then it didn't. Simple as that. Final Grade C-

I could say this movie had action, romance, some horror, a little flair of mystery thrown in, and I certainly wouldn't be lying. There are essentially two worlds: Modern day London, England, and a strange futuristic looking place called Meanwhile city. London is the domain of Milo, a romantic who's been down on his luck with every girl since leaving his childhood friend, and Emilia, an art student with a tendency to try to kill herself on video. Meanwhile City is the domain of Preest, a faithless man in the midst of a city ruled by hundreds of different religions and patrolled by the "clerics". In London, there's the mystery of the strange red haired girl from Milo's past, Emilia's "art", and Peter Esser trying to find his missing son. In Meanwhile, Preest avoids Clerics and traitors while tracking the leader of a religious group that sacrificed a young girl. All these elements were confusing at first, but weird and fantastic enough to keep me occupied until the pieces began to fall into place, and suddenly these two "separate" worlds became one, and it all made sense. Preest is actually Peter Esser's missing son, and his mind has created it's own world after the traumatic death of David Esser's (Preest's) younger sister, then blaming in on his father, Peter, who is the leader of the religious cult in Meanwhile. This worked fine and dandy, until just about the last minute or so of the movie in an anti-climatic, "oh dear, that was sort of weird. Are you alright?" and paramedics who decide "Ok, even though this guy just got SHOT in the ARM and is most likely losing BLOOD, we'll let him have a tender moment with that girl who just stumbled out of a building that EXPLODED. Anyone else want to give this realistic B.S. a go 'cause I'm pretty damn sure I'M FIRED :D (did I forget to mention it turns out 2/3 of the main characters are clinically insane? No? Oh. Well, it also turns out that 2 out of the 3 main characters are just insane, and the 3rd is definitely pushing it.)

When sitting watching Franklyn for the first time the other week, the main question running through my mind was: "why wasn't this film publicised more?"For a small British Indie film, with a relatively small budget of £6million, Gerald McMorrow was able to achieve an astounding motion picture. The plot twists and turns in every direction, all the while making you think. As a big fan of the work of Richard Kelly, the logic involved around the plot line really captivated me. Even the scores created to accompany the film by Joby Talbot, captured the essence of the film perfectly and emphasised the intensity and the emotions in every scene.This is definitely a film to watch!