Frantic
1988 Directed by Roman Polanski
Synopsis
Ford plays an American doctor whose wife suddenly vanishes in Paris. To find her, he navigates a puzzling web of language, locale, laissez-faire cops, triplicate-form filling bureaucrats and a defiant, mysterious waif who knows more than she tells.
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Frantic is the kind of film that Alfred Hitchcock would have loved to have directed, and it is the kind of film that Brian De Palma must still wish he had directed.
It does surprise me that when Roman Polanski's films are discussed that Frantic isn't cited as one of his very best. As far as I'm concerned it is. It may lack the genius of Chinatown or the mischievous beauty of Cul-de-Sac and it may be just short of the breathtakingly taut suspense of Knife In The Water, but this is Polanski showing that he can do North By Northwest and Blow Out as well.
He might not have Harrison Ford chased by a crop duster or having him…
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I'd say one of Harrison Fords best performances. All in all a solid and very well-made thriller with that little Polanski-touch. The score by Ennio Morricone is pretty great too.
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De certa forma há por aqui uma evocação conceptual hitchcockiana cruzada com um certo tom de James Bond inicial (e até tem surge a ajuda de uma espécie de Bond-girl) na forma como se desenrolam tantos dilemas apartir de uma simples troca de malas num aeroporto, que evolui para o rapto da esposa de um doutor, que para tentar salvar a esposa esbarra num pais cheio de burocracias, e desenrrascando-se sozinho a sua investigação amadora vai o levar até a um submundo de poderes criminosos com planos bem mais elaborados e letais do que parecia.
Continua um thriller emocionante, continuamente misterioso, bem interpretado (Harrison Ford excelente a formar um "peixe fora de água" a tentar inverter a situação e ainda…
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This review reportedly contains spoilers. I can handle the truth.
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This was not a bad film by any means, but sadly it was pretty forgettable: It is interesting, but only mildly; Harrison Ford is great as always, but nothing more; and Polanski's touch was signature, but nothing surprisingly brilliant.
The most memorable thing about Frantic was the relationship between the main character and his unexpected female companion. Those two as a duo were rather enjoyable to watch.
I also admired how this film kept a feeling of realism. Most suspense stories like this have the average-Joe character taking on impossible odds and becoming some kind of action-star. This one isn't like that. Ford's character is not a superhero by any means, and the progression of his investigation feels quite natural.…
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My New Year's resolution is to watch a shitload of Polanski, an area of my film-watching I feel somewhat lacking. I had a lot of fun with this Hitchcockian thriller set in Paris where quite quickly the mundane turns into Harrison in Wonderland... Thoroughly enjoyable except that the rabbit in this case couldn't act to save her life (I believe this is the same tone-deaf thespian from Ninth Gate). The last act is disappointing but man the journey was worth it.
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Polanski returns to fertile ground, the myth of the male American hero, this time by way of Hitchcock's "man on the run" and "McGuffin" motifs. Ford is a limited actor, but a great one when working within his range, and this role plays to his strengths.
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De certa forma há por aqui uma evocação conceptual hitchcockiana cruzada com um certo tom de James Bond inicial (e até tem surge a ajuda de uma espécie de Bond-girl) na forma como se desenrolam tantos dilemas apartir de uma simples troca de malas num aeroporto, que evolui para o rapto da esposa de um doutor, que para tentar salvar a esposa esbarra num pais cheio de burocracias, e desenrrascando-se sozinho a sua investigação amadora vai o levar até a um submundo de poderes criminosos com planos bem mais elaborados e letais do que parecia.
Continua um thriller emocionante, continuamente misterioso, bem interpretado (Harrison Ford excelente a formar um "peixe fora de água" a tentar inverter a situação e ainda…
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Eu deixava lá a esposa e regressava para casa com a menina francesa que era toda jeitosa. Upa upa!
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This review reportedly contains spoilers. I can handle the truth.
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So much more than I expected and I am a fan of Harrison Ford so I am trying to make my way through his entire back catalogue, this was a film I was not anticipating enjoying. However it is an interesting film, though I was expecting a twist like flight plan with no one believing his wife was missing, it is a thriller based on a mistake that escalates out of hand. However by the end I did not know what I was wanting or expecting was he going with the young sexy french lady, was he going with his wife, would he get his wife back? all these questions kept me gripped and I was quite satisfied with what happened it is a nightmare and extreme circumstance but real enough you can go with it.
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There are aspects that I really liked. The film remains remarkably grounded, never resorting to making Ford into a unbelievable hero, and the procedural nature of the first hour, where we simply follow him as he first talks to Hotel security, then the cops and finally the US embassy is unexpected and works well. There is of course a lot of darkly funny Polanski stuff. But the film never becomes all that exciting and the mystery is deeply uninvolving. The relationship between Ford and Emmanuelle Seigner is interesting and fun, but is spoiled by the ending.
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An intense yet mesmerizing thriller about an American doctor searching for his kidnapped wife in Paris with the help of a young woman as it's one of Polanski's more underrated features as it also features a brilliant Harrison Ford.
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Thriller vendidote pero efectivo... casi todo el tiempo. Funciona mejor cuando Polanski juega a ser Hitchcock (el hotel, el tejado, etc) pero su convencionalismo y Sagnier le hacen daño.
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Doctor and wife go to Paris, they're separated and he goes on search to find out what happened to her. Meets young foreign girl who helps him out. Basically Frantic is like that Liam Neeson film Unknown, except not shit.
Harrison Ford is good, the girl is very French. Overall fairly enjoyable if not especially remarkable.