THE CRITIC-AL LIST
5 STAR FAB - 1 STAR RUBBISH

The Crazies
Case 39
The Wolfman
Legion
The Lovely Bones
Black Death
Daybreakers
Avatar
The Stepfather
Ninja Assassin
The Descent: Part 2
Amer
The Twilight Saga: New Moon
The Box
2012
Disney's A Christmas Carol
The Horseman
Solomon Kane
Pandorum
Cloudy With A Chance Of Meatballs
District 9
An Education
G.I. Joe: The Rise Of The Cobra
Orphan
A Perfect Getaway
The Imaginarium Of
Doctor Parnassus
Up
Harry Potter
And The Half-Blood Prince
The Taking of Pelham 123
Transformers
The Revenge Of The Fallen
Antichrist
Terminator Salvation
Last House On The Left
Inglorious Basterds
Angels & Demons
Adventureland
Star Trek
Crank: High Voltage
Coraline
Dragonball Evolution
Let The Right One In
Drag Me To Hell
Race to Witch Mountain
Knowing
Monsters Vs. Aliens
Not Quite Hollywood
Lesbian Vampire Killers
Martyrs
The Children
Surveillance
Watchmen
The Unborn
The International
Friday The 13th
Franklyn
Push
Punisher:War Zone
The Uninvited
Amusement
The Good The Bad And
The Weird
Hush
Underworld
The RIse OF The Lycans
My Bloody Valentine
Bolt
Slumdog Millionaire

Directed by Gerald McMorrow. Starring Eva Green, Ryan Philippe, Sam Riley, Bernard Hill, Art Malik and Susannah York. Sci-Fi/Thriller, UK, 98 min.

Four lost souls find their fates intertwined in writer/director Gerald McMorrow overly ambitious feature debut that borders on the pretentious in its convoluted weirdness.

Set in the parallel universe of modern London and its religion dominated futuristic twin Meanwhile City, the worlds of jilted Sam Riley, suicidal Eva Green, devout Bernard Hill and Iraq war veteran Ryan Phillippe collide in one moment of coincidence. Or was it pre-ordained by higher angelic powers? By the time the ending lurches into view outside an East End rain-swept restaurant you won’t care. Unfortunately McMorrow’s way too cryptic exploration of the vagaries of destiny, romance and faith fails to hit the heights of his clear inspirations DONNIE DARKO and DARK CITY Piling on layers of fantasy and reality with unclear meaning for most of its length proves far too distancing. Its flawed narrative being an untidy heap of arcane religions, Big Brother paranoia, imaginary friends, self-loathing, art projects, multi-personalities and comic book metaphors doesn’t help either. FRANKLYN (and frankly the title is another problem) is typical of something made by a clearly talented individual who hasn’t had his all-over-the-place-inventiveness properly reined in. Something you’d think veteran producer Jeremy Thomas would be a past master at.  Still it looks good for $6 million even though it has a rough around the production design edges sloppiness to it.

The dingily ornate BLADE RUNNER-esque vistas for example: you can see the location/CGI augmentation blunt join. Despite sensitive performance levels – although why Phillippe agreed to this mainly masked role is anyone’s guess - and some keen visual flair not many will emotionally engage or connect with the obscure pieces of an unsatisfying puzzle that finally slot into urban fairytale place.   

Alan Jones

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