Franklyn (2008)

Franklyn is about four different stories that unfold in two different dimensions. Or rather, two realities. The stories' events take place - in their respective settings - in tandem as the movie progresses, in an attempt to ideally, cause a sense of bewilderment to the spectator at the beginning but ultimately, have them stand in awe as the pieces of the puzzle beautifully bind together in an epic finale. It sounds interesting, but something, or some things went wrong in the making of this film and the final result is far from ideal. Outrageously bad - literally laughable at times - acting (except for Bernard Hill's performance), confusing, uninteresting, shallow, pretentious and ill-executed plot and direction, a film which is oftentimes reduced to a mockery of its own inspirations. Right off the bat, the movie only succeeds in conveying to the spectator a great deal of indifference and while in the last twenty minutes or so debuts in above zero levels, the point finally prised out of a 90 minutes film, falls short to some cliched, trivial notion about life. I cannot think of a reason to recommend it.