Movie 134: Franklyn

Nicking the IMDB synopsis:

Preest is a masked vigilante detective, searching for his nemesis on the streets of Meanwhile City, a monolithic fantasy metropolis ruthlessly governed by faith and religious fervor. Esser is a broken man, searching for his wayward son amongst the rough streets of London's homeless. Milo is a heartbroken thirty-something desperately trying to find a way back to the purity of first love. Emilia is a beautiful art student; her suicidal art projects are becoming increasingly more complex and deadly.

That’s more or less right. Lets take apart the 4 stories individually. Over all this film is pretty crap, the way it all comes together is part clever part blatant coincidence so its easier to treat these as disparate movies though I’ll try and avoid spoilers.

The Meanwhile City story fails because its trying to be clever with the religious satire, but never quite gets there. Preest seems to be an attempt at doing a hero in the style of The Shadow. But we never quite get why he’s meant to be so awesome. It’s like the second film in a franchise, without the set up. This does make sense in the end, but takes quite a while to get there. It looks very weird and it’s a detailed looking city, but never connects with the real world (well does eventually). As this was largely billed as being a joined story between the two worlds that really sucks. The way its structured its like seeing The Matrix and The Real intertwined with no explanation, incomprehensible bollocks.

Esser’s story is pretty decent, but no where near as harsh as the description makes it sound. Remember that its roughly 20 minutes tops of actual film time. Basically we have an old man popping in to some places trying to find his son with a picture. We know his son is in prison or a nut house and is getting a day release. That’s it. Not all that compelling, not terrible in its own right.

Milo’s story would be the most interesting on its own in a short film. He’s just been left at the alter and is trying to come to terms with that. He spots a girl from his youth, or thinks he does, and looks her up. Then there’s a big twist that’s actually pretty decent. However the story in itself, outside of coincidence, doesn’t connect up with the others in any major way.

And finally Emilia. She’s not bad looking, but that’s irrelevant. You know the 99% of people on Deviant art who write bad poetry about cutting and take “meaningful” pictures? That’s Emilia. She’s a bit of a pain, they give her a bit of an explanatory scene but its too little too late. Her section is all whiney emo bollocks and bad art. Barely watchable, not at all sympathetic.

And that’s all I can say without ruining the film. This isn’t really a fantasy film at all, though it has fantasy elements. It’s also not that well constructed, something seemed off about the sound at times with disembodied seeming voices, and its not as clever as its thinks. I’d give it a miss.

Next up: Race To Witch Mountain