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

A Hitchcockian thriller with brilliant work by Harrison Ford

This film is one to behold for one terrific performance by Harrison Ford. While vacationing in Paris, Dr. Richard Walker's wife disappears mysteriously while he is taking a shower. Now he must put the pieces of the puzzle together in order to find out what happened to her. You can really sense the frustration, anger and confusion the frightened Harrison Ford must evoke from one scene to the next. Emmanuelle Seigner as the young girl who will help him is gorgeous and something else to behold. Frantic looks and sounds like something Hitchcock would have conjoured up and it's definitely worthy of being in his league. I was glad that the film did not go for the usual happy Hollywood ending. It does work itself out, but there is also a tragedy that comes along with it. Roman Polanski, who married Seigner has brought us another work of art. I would love to see a commentary and other special features on this film if Warner re-releases it in the future. It's more than deserving of having an enhanced edition. Also recommended by Polanski you may have missed: Death and the Maiden starring Sigourney Weaver in one terrific performance that like Ford, showcases her brilliant talent. October 18, 2008

Not aging well

Maybe this was hot stuff 20 years ago, but it seems a bit dated now. The soundtrack is especially old fashioned, almost embarrassing, like something from the 50s. The plot is fairly standard suspense fare. The writing is nothing to write home about. There is a little suspense, but it's no nail biter. After 9-11, the plot about Arabs stealing a nuclear timing device seems prescient, I will say that. Ford's wife is incredibly frumpy and not believable. The scenes of Paris are mostly unattractive. In short, there's not a lot of reason to go out of your way for this. August 4, 2008

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

More reviews at Amazon.com ...