Frantic (1987)

Originally Reviewed 

Saturday January 27, 2007

 

Frantic is a clear example of the type of role Harrison Ford thrives on. The name alone is a great precursor to the type of thriller this film turns out to be. While the style has more of an independent feel to it there's never a dull moment with Harrison Ford at the driver’s seat!

Harrison Ford plays Richard Walker, a doctor on work/vacation with his wife in Paris where he's scheduled to speak at a medical convention. Everything seems to be quite normal except for the usual travel woes such as a flat tire on the way to the hotel and picking up someone else's suitcase. But when his wife disappears things begin to get interesting.

While Richard is taking a shower the phone rings and Sondra, his wife answers. She attempts to speak to Richard but he's unable to make out what she's saying over the noise of the shower. Once he gets out he finds she is gone, several hours later he begins to get worried. He reports what he believes to be a kidnapping to the local police and the United States embassy, but no one seems to be in a hurry to help him find out what happened to his wife, so he'll have to solve this mystery on his own.

With not much to go on Richard decides to open up the suitcase his wife had mistaken as her own but found nothing of interest except a telephone number for a Dedi on the inside of a nightclub matchbox. Thinking it was possibly the owner of this suitcase who had gotten his wives by mistake and then kidnapped her for some reason he decides to track down this Dedi in hopes of gaining information to the whereabouts of his wife. What he doesn't know is he's about to put himself in the middle of an extremely dangerous situation.

This was the first time I've seen Frantic in it's entirety so I was quite excited to watch it all the way through.  I always find it quite ironic how a majority of Harrison Ford films usually entail the kidnapping of his wife. Frantic is a incredibly exciting, one of those films you find yourself attempting to communicate with the main character by yelling at the screen in a useless attempt to somehow guide him in the right direction.

Roman Polanski wrote and directed this film, a director whose work I'm not especially familiar with, although I do know of his fleeing from justice after being convicted of the rape of a thirteen year old girl in 1978. He fled the states to be harbored in France where he still lives. Seeing that for the most part celebrities don't do time for anything and that he was scared enough to flee I would assume he was quite guilty of the crime. It sickens me that people who do such horrible and perverted crimes such as rape or murder are able to elude the arm of justice by going to another country, but in this world we live in it's not surprising. Polanski's third wife, Emmanuelle Seigner, plays the very exotic Michelle in the film. I thought she fit the part quite well and certainly was easy on the eyes.

Overall, Frantic is a very entertaining thriller and a must see for Harrison Ford fans, he doesn't disappoint. The film is able to hold on to the suspense quite well through the two hours, but does begin to get a little corny in the last 20 minutes, and I felt the ending was a little lame as well. Other than that my only other complaint is the casting of the actress who played Ford's wife. I saw no chemistry whatsoever between the two of them and she looked like she could have been his older sister or possibly even his mother!  In the end, it's a film that is well worth the watch and it's Harrison Ford in the prime of his illustrious career, so you really have nothing to lose! 

 8/10