Frankie Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		2.5
Video		4.5
Audio		4.0
Extras		1.5
Overall		3.0

Frankie Blu-ray Movie Review

Let's Be Frank(ie)

Reviewed by Martin Liebman February 27, 2020

Ira Sachs (Little Men, Love Is Strange) directs the pretentious Frankie, a film about mixed family and mixed-up emotions on an exotic Portuguese getaway where the common threads are doubt, dysfunction, and death. The film has little to say but takes its time spelling it out, anyway, building a small army of listless characters going about dull personal business in an underutilized exotic setting. Sachs, who co-wrote the film with Mauricio Zacharias, cannot find the depth to the characters or the grace in their surroundings, somehow squandering an A-list collection of talent and muddying up a beautiful location that feels distant because it's impossible to get too close to the characters who vacation in it. The film is lifted by that sheer on-screen talent but the picture never can escape the clutches of ambling story threads and the no-feel dramatic significance.

Frankie (Isabelle Huppert), a world renowned movie star, has gathered friends and family to an exotic Portuguese getaway before she dies of cancer. Her diagnosis is not known to the entire group, though. Her husband Jimmy (Brendan Gleeson) is quietly grieving. She's invited one of her best friends, a Hollywood makeup artist named Ilene (Marisa Tomei), in hopes of setting her up with her son Paul (Jérémie Renier), who has no real interest in acquiescing to his mother's demands for his life. But Ilene throws a wrench in the works when she brings along her boyfriend Gary (Greg Kinnear), himself a Hollywood cinematographer, who is hoping to take the opportunity to propose big life changes and advance his relationship with Ilene forward. However, she's reluctant to make that commitment. Also tagging along is Frankie's ex husband Michel (Pascal Greggory) and her stepdaughter Sylvia (Vinette Robinson) who is taking the occasion of the vacation separate from her husband Ian (Ariyon Bakare), even with her daughter Maya (Sennia Nenua) in tow.

Here’s an ensemble film without much gravity to it, not much of a draw into the story or the characters. Everything about it feels stale and comes across flat; the connective tissue between the characters feels inauthentic, the drama lacks urgent significance, and the audience is given no incentive to connect with the film. The film is slow and deliberate in exploring and exposing the story, which only dampens already straining prospects for something better. While the film never feels crowded with all of the characters in play, even as each is at a different life stage with ideas of how, and with whom, to pursue their futures, none of it resonates. It’s manufactured, written and played to reflect that, and even as the cast delivers uniformly good performances they’re not enough to lift the movie beyond well intentioned, but questionably executed, mediocrity.

The photogenic backdrop does not hold relevancy, either. It's too gorgeous for a film like this, where that beauty is regularly absorbed by a curious underutilization with only a few shots standing out as sensory scenery sensation. Truthfully, it feels like it's cast and crew, not the characters, who are on vacation in picturesque Portugal; the film seems secondary to what looks like a relaxed shoot with little concern for the finished product, for making a movie that means something, that expresses a desire for audience interconnectivity and intimacy with the characters. The whole things feels distant, unreal, manufactured. Gary, at one point, bemoans the fact that brochures don't do the area justice. Neither does the film do justice to its setting, its ensemble, or any potential held within the story.

Frankie Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Frankie's 1080p transfer suits the material well. The picture is largely gorgeous, though some noise does poke in from time to time, even in bright, well lit scenes; the title card shot is one such example in the three-minute mark but many more follow. The picture is otherwise very attractive and abundantly colorful. Natural greens are everywhere, showing varied tones and intensities that bring the natural world around the town to life. Colorful clothes are likewise seen with frequency, and splashy backgrounds make numerous appearances. The palette is deep and firm, contrast seems perfectly level, skin tones look spot-on, and black levels are fine. The image's details are precise as well. Individual blades of grass, fall leaves, stony surfaces, brick façades, and all of the natural and manmade beauties around the setting spring to life with exacting, impressive textural might. Skin details are robust and complex, showing dense hairs, wrinkles, freckles, and pores with intimate precision. Clothes are likewise impressively revealing and show material and construction complexities to high yield visual satisfaction. Except for the noise there are no source or encode uglies to report.

Frankie Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Frankie's DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 lossless soundtrack opens with impressively refined and positioned natural ambience -- insects, chirping birds -- emanating from all around the listener, but with positional and volume subtlety to draw the listener into a serene world and not overwhelm the senses with it. Similar environmental fill elements remain for the duration, doing a great service in breathing life into the wondrous Portuguese locations. The track gains a little intensity as a cable car rattles about in chapter five in one of the more interesting sonic moments in the film, with the rattles and cracks and creaks emanating from all around the listener. Some of the more rambunctious city din -- check the 35-minute mark -- is a little too dense and swarming, competing with a key scene, though one could argue that "noise" is the point as Gary's wants for his relationship with Ilene fall on deaf ears. Some other sound elements seem a bit overzealous, too, including ocean waves rushing with great prominence in chapter eight. Dialogue is clear and pleasant with a natural front-center positioning.

Frankie Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

The Frankie Blu-ray includes a Q&A session and a trailer. No DVD or digital copies are included with purchase. This release does not ship with a slipcover.

• Q&A with Director Ira Sachs & Isabelle Huppert (1080p, 27:49): Moderator Alison Bailes hosts the co-writer/director and actress who discuss the film: Huppert's collaboration with Sachs, story and themes, characters and performances, and more.
• Theatrical Trailer (1080p, 2:05).
• Previews: Additional Sony titles.

Frankie Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Frankie recalls the vastly superior Still Alice, starring Julianne Moore, another fair-skinned redhead who surrounds herself with family in the face of a debilitating health crisis. Where that film found emotional resonance and character authenticity, this one finds none. It's a drama salad that does not blend well together, even if several of the chief ingredients -- a stellar cast on paper in particular -- elevate the material to acceptable levels through sheer talent alone. But with so many better family dramas on the market, with greater emotional depth and audience draw, there's little reason to choose this one over any of those, even if the Blu-ray delivers a quality product.