Frantic (1988)

Living in exile in Paris after eluding a controversial charge of statutory rape in America, director Roman Polanski seemed professionally adrift during the 1980s, making only one film (the ill-fated Pirates) between 1979 and 1988. Then Polanski found inspiration--and a major star in Harrison Ford--to make Frantic, a thriller that played directly into Polanski's gift for creating an atmosphere of mystery, dread, escalating suspense, and uncertain fate. Set in Paris (Polanski couldn't go to Hollywood, so Hollywood came to him), the story begins when an American heart surgeon (Ford) arrives in the City of Lights with his wife (Betty Buckley) for a medical convention. They check into a posh hotel, and in a brilliantly directed scene, Ford takes a shower and emerges to find that his wife has vanished. This mysterious disappearance--and a confusion between two identical pieces of luggage--leads Ford into the Paris underground and a plot that grows increasingly dangerous as he approaches the truth of his wife's disappearance. The plot gets too complicated, and the pace drops off in the cluttered second half, but in Polanski's capable hands the film is blessed with moments of heightened suspense in the tradition of classic thrillers. --Jeff Shannon Amazon.com

 Americans must be well protected in Paris
Discover Paris the way you would probably never see it. Garbage collecting trucks shown three times in the film. The French police that understands English and does not like nervous Americans, and they send their incognito agents behind the man they have more or less sent to hell. The US embassy obviously speaking with a forked tongue, being reassuring on one side and sending its secret agents behind the American citizen at once without telling him of course (S*** for S***head as Dr Walker says). Then a Statue of Liberty, the original mind you, seen and shown nearly too much. Underground parking lots that are crime avenues. Parisian zinc roofs. French taxis with black taxi drivers getting a flat on a highway. Then constant contradictions between tipping and not tipping in hotels. And all kinds of dealings and dealers along the river's embankments, in all kinds of underground structures, or airports, or night clubs, or bars, or whatever. A dangerous life for simple American tourists, but vacations remembered forever. Anyway in Paris only the French and the Arabs apparently die. Funny more than thrilling but well acted and that is a real pleasure.

Dr Jacques COULARDEAU, University Paris Dauphine, University Paris 1 Pantheon Sorbonne & University Versailles Saint Quentin en Yvelines
January 5, 2008

 DVD Drama
Harrison Ford can do no wrong. He is a very good actor! I took one star off due to the fact that I could not pick up the plot until part way through and then it was still not clear who wanted the item she had and why it was so important. December 30, 2007

 Evocative and forward-looking thriller
As other reviewers here have pointed out, Frantic plays like Polanski's homage to Hitchcock. An American doctor's wife is kidnapped in Paris in a case of mistaken identity. The doctor, Richard Walker, is in Paris for a medical convention. He's disengaged from the city--Paris is just a backdrop for a lecture he'll be giving. His wife's disappearance forces him into the city's underworld. Polanski presciently makes the villains from the Middle East (at a time when everyone was still so hung up on the Cold War). The film's plot has holes in it, but Frantic is really about Walker's shock, cultural isolation and loneliness (even though he has a beautiful female sidekick) as he searches for his wife. Harrison Ford is excellent as Walker, the American forced to loose his innocence in order to get his wife back. His acting here has a vulnerability that I've never seen in his other films. Frantic's cinematography is reminiscent of American film noir, We see Walker's nondescript hotel room, garbage trucks, empty highways and underpasses and sleazy eurotrash nightclubs. The drabness mirrors the emptiness of Walker's unexamined inner life; he's so fixated on his work and family life that he's tuned the richness and complexity that Paris represents. And his provincialism has made him oblivious to the ominous emergence of global terrorism. A cheap souvenir of the Statue of Liberty holds the clue to the film's mystery and the statue's tawdriness makes a statement about the superficiality of American values. Ennio Morricone's terrific soundtrack reinforces the film's emotional depth. The Paris we see in Frantic is an eighties' Paris that is gone forever, which gives it a great nostalgic value today. But is Dr. Walker really going to be happy with is prim wife after running around Paris with the beautiful Michelle and her druggy bohemian friends? This film could also be a commentary on his marriage. July 11, 2007

 Excellent Performances, OK Movie
Roman Polanski's 1987 film "Frantic" was another Harrison Ford as the hero film and introduced Polanski fans to the beautiful foreign actress Emanuelle Seigner (who would later become Polanski's wife). Looking at the back cover, a reviewer proclaims "Heart-stopping. Polanski's Best Film Ever. Ford is the Ultimate Hero." The film wasn't heart-stopping, this is not Polanski's best film (Chinatown anybody?), and Ford is a pretty good action hero but not the best. Having just, pretty much, bashed the film. I did like it. It has it's moments, Ford and Seigner are great; The movie isn't as elaborate as it tries to be, but it's entertaining for the most part. Ford plays Richard Walker, an American doctor in Paris with his wife Sondra (Betty Buckley) to give a speech. Walker is also planning a little quality-time with his wife. While Walker takes a shower, his wife yells something to him which he doesn't hear, and when he gets out of the shower she's gone. After asking questions, it seems that she's ran off with a man...So when Walker files a missing persons report, the police don't really take him seriously. When he learns from a drunk that his wife has been kidnapped, Walker begins doing whatever he can to find her. Then he finds Michelle (Seigner), a French-woman who is in the habit of smuggling drugs across borders for people.
Michelle's suitcase got mixed up with Walker's wife, for the record. Anyway, Michelle seems to know a lot more than she lets on and she begins helping Walker find his wife. The conclusion is less-than-satisfying. Polanski is really good at two things when he makes films. Cinematography and suspense. The cinematography is in top form in the film, there's some great shots of Paris and some great shots in general. The suspense, however, is almost nonexistent. There isn't any really heart-stopping things that happen in this film. Ford does his best with the material and the movie holds your interest, but it's no masterpiece.

GRADE: B- October 13, 2006

 Polanski in a slump
An American doctor in Paris (Harrison Ford) searches for his wife (Betty Buckley), who has been kidnapped due to a luggage mix-up at the airport. It begins with promise, but the plot never really develops any momentum and culminates with a desultory gunfight that offers no suspense, no revelations, and no excitement. Roman Polanski is a gifted director. He made some brilliant films before this and he would make some great ones later, but "Frantic" feels like its on autopilot. August 28, 2006

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