Rating:

Cast: Franke Potente


I stated in my review for Eve's Bayou that the ninties will go down as the "Decade of Disfunction". Well, 1999 will go down as the year of the slow paced, stuffy, aimed-at-Oscar, three hour films. Sure, there are the good titles such as The Talented Mr. Ripley, Girl, Interrupted, The End of the Affair and The Cider House Rules, the disappointing ones such as The Green Mile and Any Given Sunday. This is why Run Lola Run is such a breath of fresh air. It's pretty short at 82 minutes, it's fast-paced, great looking, and it's just a dazzling film to behold. Oh, and it doesn't have those nagging, sophisticated, complex moral dilemma's. Sure, it has some, but they're simple and it they don't make you search for some deeper meaning or greater truth. It's a simple film with great entertainment value.

Plus, it's a forgein film. It's very involving and very different than most foreign films I have seen. Don't get me wrong, I really like foreign films. Two, more recent, examples would have to be with two 1998 pictures. 2 Days in September and Life Is Beautiful. Days almost made the Top Ten, and Life just happened to come in as number one. Now comes Tom Tykwer's exotic German masterpiece Run Lola Run and it's sitting pretty in my Top Ten and doesn't look like it's moving anytime soon.

The story is pretty simple. Flamehaired Lola (Franka Potente) has a drug dealer boyfriend who loses his merchandise. In a frantic moment, he calls Lola for help. He has 20 minutes to get 100,000 dollars. Lola decides she can help out. Well, there are three different outcomes to this story, but I'm not going to give anything away.

I like Lola because it's unlike anything I've ever seen before. That may seem like a weird thing to say since it's about a woman running for an hour and 22 minutes, but Tykwer adds some nice touches like a very distinct visual style. The smallest thing I liked was a little thing where when Lola meets people or bumps into them as she's running, a flash of images come up preceded with the title card "And Then..." where it shows what will happen to that person in the future. It's a very creative way to not waste any characters large or small. A wonderful touch.

The film does, however, have a few minute faults to go with greatness. I got a little tired of seeing the same scene with Lola's father and his mistress contemplating whether to keep the baby she has with him (or stay with him for that matter), or just leave him and raise the baby on her own. I also noticed this happened to me in Go when they showed the same thing to get things started each time. It's just small argument against an otherwise good film. That technique worked wonders in The End of the Affair. Ther was also minimal character development in this film and that bothered me a little.

However, with a great performance from Franka Potente and her male counterpart, this is a truly memorable picture. it's one pretty much everyone can enjoy.

The Bottom Line: A good film, with a good story, acting, and the year's best direction.


Brian Jones-2000