'Frank' by Lenny Abrahamson Review: An interesting idea, but not for me

I have mentioned a few times in the past that I really don't like productions from England and Ireland. It seems like quite a rarity that a film comes from these locations and is actually good. Much of this is due to our smaller film industries and higher production cost, we have a very small audience to market to given we are both tiny islands. So, much of what comes from us tends to be cheap, weird, very indie. A one-off to which the director ends up sort of disappearing for another ten years before making something else or nothing at all. Our film industry mostly exists to serve oversea markets, we produce the television shows and films of major franchises, but don't really have anything of our own. This isn't specific to us, of course. Much of Europe is this way, where the indie market is tiny and the films produced tend to be passion projects that luckily got funded, but don't really earn any money.

With them being passion projects mostly, there's two sides of it: the arthouse side and the indie weird side. I feel our weird side is much larger, and this is ultimately why I don't really like films here. They, well, end up being very odd. With strange stories or ideas that are incredibly simple to account for the lower budget. Shot typically in few locations as a result of this also. Frank initially threw me off for these reasons. I knew it would be weird. I knew what to expect from it for the most part. But it had some elements to it I quite enjoyed still, but I do feel it still inevitably lost me as it carried into its second half. As always, the weirdness crept on and became too much, and I feel it ruined an otherwise interesting idea that could've been much more. And what's more surprising, is that this actually has quite a strong cast that features some popular American performers. Something I didn't really expect but found quite interesting around the end, sort of making up for the rest of the film not quite capturing my attention.

Frank actually started off quite strong. A middle-aged worker that lives by the sea in some relatively rural part of Ireland is standing idle, overlooking the water. Observing his surroundings, his inner-monologue is trying to come up with some song lyrics. It clearly isn't working out for him, as nothing around him seems to spark interest. The lyrics are just bad. They're void of emotion and creativity, there's no flow to any of it. This aspiring musician returns home to a keyboard where it's clear his heart is in music but just lacks the support he needs. He's alone in it all but clearly doesn't have songwriting cut out for him. This added a bit of fun humour to begin with, a character you can connect with and feel for pretty quickly. Living in a relatively plain area, wanting something more.

In typical fashion of these films, a little bit of dark humour is used. Our protagonist happens to be at the right time and place, to which a band pull up and one of their members is having a psychotic breakdown, throwing himself into the water while the police fish him out. Our protagonist is offered a job is a keyboard player for the band, told nothing but where to show up and at what time in the evening. The film still managed to hold my attention at this point, but started to lose me around here. They play together at some random location, and things don't go well. It's a band with some struggles. They move to a remote location in the middle of nowhere, renting a cabin for the meantime while they record some songs. One of the band members perpetually has a mask over his head, this is Frank. It isn't really clear why, but he seems to always wear one. Being the whole spark of the band, people don't really ask questions.

And this is where the film sort of lost me. It stopped being a little adventure in which our protagonist had managed to finally catch his big break. Instead, it became odd and a little hard to follow due to the pursuit of drama. I really did not like this direction, and it focused far too much on this masked individual of Frank to which the main idea seemed lost. As the drama ensues, the band starts to fall apart. But this obsession with the mask continues as our protagonist continues to probe for information regarding what Frank actually looks like underneath. Truthfully, I just couldn't care for it. Which is a shame because up until this point, I had really liked the simplicity of the film and the idea of adventure it provided. Our protagonist had been thrown into a world of music and travels out of nowhere, and the retreat to a cabin seemed professional and full of ideas.

And even here, the cinematography continued to please me. In terms of filmmaking, this is a very beautiful film. I quite liked the lighting and the tones used. Especially in showcasing the natural landscape of Ireland, the cabin and the isolation it provided. The interiors didn't scream low budget either, there was clear attention to the art direction and I found myself loving the cozy look to it all. But the film just had to get a bit weird. And unfortunately, the performances of Michael Fassbender, Maggie Gyllenhaal, and even Scoot McNairy couldn't save it. None of the performances had any problems, but the story of jealousy and weirdness just couldn't hold me in. I appreciate the attempt to shoot something in relatively small locations, taking advantage of remote areas and shooting on a smaller budget. I do think the film had this as a big strength. Not once did I feel that I didn't find it visually appealing.

It's pretty much what I expected of this film. Though I was very happy with the first half I had seen. But all it did was make me want that original idea of a small-time band having fun creating songs together, with a stroke of luck implemented. Of course a little weirdness is expected for creatives, but these films just don't really do anything for me. Though, I'm still glad I gave it a chance. Perhaps it'll be something others can enjoy more, it seems to have managed to win over the hearts of critics back in 2014, at least.