Frantic

Home
Smell the Movies
Smell the TV

A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

Year:	1988
Country of origin:	USA / France
Director:	Roman Polanski
Genre:	Euro-thriller
Starring:	Harrison Ford, Betty Buckley, Emmanuelle Seigner
Rating:	4/5
IMDB link:	http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0095174/
Tagline:	Danger. Desire. Desperation.
Favourite line:	"You understand but you don't give a damn? Is that it?"

Roman Polanski's abduction thriller is more a study in quiet desperation than the title might suggest.

The plot:
A wealthy American doctor (Harrison Ford) and his wife are on a busman's holiday in Paris. Getting ready for the day ahead, Dr. Walker is taking a shower when the telephone rings. His wife answers, speaks briefly, then tries to communicate something but, with water spraying loudly, he is unable to hear what she said. Dr. Walker finishes his shower and emerges to discover his wife gone, vanished, with little clue as to her whereabouts.
So begins a desperate search that will see him encountering murder, drug-taking, betrayal and international terrorism.

Polished and precise, Ford is perfectly cast as the emotionally devastated Dr. Walker - a role he would go on to effectively re-enact a few years later in The Fugitive - and is very convincing, displaying just the right balance of anger, frustration and raw fear.
If there is a criticism to be found anywhere - and you have to look hard - it is perhaps that the villains are a little caricatured, a touch too pantomime.
That aside, this is a rock solid, quality Euro-thriller.