: Run Lola Run
Author: Tom Tykwer
Director: Tom Tykwer
This is a fascinating film from Germany. It works on many levels, but because of its MTV-like style and pace, plus it’s unusual “plot,” it’s difficult to follow on the first viewing. At first I thought it simplistic, but it actually is quite deep — it’s just that the glossy style makes you think it’s a silly music video. Essentially the movie’s about a girl who must get 100,000 marks ($60,000) to her boyfriend in twenty minutes or he’ll be killed. The twenty minute race to find the money and get it to her boyfriend is repeated three times, each with a different outcome (generated by slight changes in initial decisions). It’s a fascinating premise, and as well done as it could be — but ultimately it seems gimmicky and of course it can’t escape that it feels like a movie, not real life. Still, there were many very cool effects. One of my favorites was the “fast forwards,” where Lola bumps into a character and with a series of photographic snapshots we see that character’s entire future in a few seconds: meeting a woman, falling in love, marriage, a baby, a whole family, etc. This only happens a few times in the film so it doesn’t get old; it’s very cool. The DVD is worth watching as it has a director’s commentary which is surprisingly good. One annoyance: the dubbed English and English subtitles use completely different translations. Why do films do this? Really dumb. I guess it was never an issue before DVDs as with video you either get the dubbed or the subtitled version, but I’ve seen it on several DVDs and it’s incredibly irritating. (I like subtitles as they make it easier to follow the story.)
Topic: [/movie] |
