Frankie
& Alice (2010/Lionsgate DVD)
Picture:
C+ Sound: B- Extras: C Film: B-
Based
on a true story, Frankie (Halle Berry) is an African American
dancer/stripper who has dissociative identity disorder or more
commonly know as multiple personality disorder. Unbeknownst to her,
she often wakes to find her alter egos has done something. As
Frankie struggles to understand who, what and where 'she' done, her
psychotherapist tries to help and understand who her other personas
are and more importantly why they are there.
In
Geoffrey Sax's Frankie & Alice (2010), Frankie discovers
she has two unique personas inside her after noticing owning things
she never bought and waking up in places she can't remember how she
got there. A seven year old girl 'Genius' and a white racist 'Alice'
resides within her, as her psychotherapist discovers the story and
tragic accident that gave birth Genius, the persona of the girl whom
she was pregnant with and her mother took her away on the day of her
birth, and Alice is the persona result of all the wrongs and
injustice done to her by the family she was raised with.
While
the acting was decent and the film had Halle Berry and Stellan
Skarsgard, it was like a Hong Kong version of K-PAX. Multiple
personality is often said to born of two things, a tragic event and
genius level of IQ, often not aware of the other's presence but each
persona is created for a certain purpose/reason. More often
psychotherapy tries to keep the original persona and removes the
others, but surprisingly the main character decides to live with them
all. We get mixed results, but you might want to see it just the
same.
The
anamorphically enhanced 2.35 X 1 image is shot on Kodak 35mm negative
film in the Super 35mm format, looking good, but a little soft being
in this format. It deserves a Blu-ray release. The lossy Dolby
Digital 5.1 mix fares a bit better with interesting surrounds at
times and a good recording but a lossless version would likely sound
even better. Extras include making of the film, digital download and
trailers.
-
Ricky Chiang
