Frantic (1988) User Reviews

Roman "Hitchcock" Polanski

[michelerealini · 8/10 · 13 October 2005]

"Frantic" is the most Hitchcock-influenced movie of Roman Polanski. The director has touched almost every cinematic genre, although always with a special taste for mysteries and disturbing elements. That's his trademark.

"Frantic" is a more conventional movie in Polanski filmography, but it's very well done and the sensation of something disquieting –typical of his films- is always there. An American doctor (Harrison Ford) goes to Paris for a medical congress with his wife. In their hotel the woman disappears without explanations and Harrison Ford begins a nightmarish research throughout the city…

The film reminds us of the Alfred Hitchcock thriller "North by Northwest" (1959) –in that movie a misunderstanding is the motor of the story, here it's something similar but more enigmatic, because we don't know who kidnapped doctor's wife.

This is the first cinematic collaboration between the Polish-French director and his future wife, actress Emmanuelle Seigner –she's the girl who helps Harrison Ford in this adventure.

Intriguing and exciting: these are the words for "Frantic". Perhaps it's not considered among Polanski's most important movies, but it still looks fresh and entertaining.

The best thing in Polanski's movies...

[em-62 · 8/10 · 31 December 2004]

...is that they are thoroughly unlike those standard Hollywood flicks where the endings are happy, the baddies get punished or die, and no animals ever get harmed during production: despite all the "Hollywood Babylon" clichés, the stench of moralistic fiction rising from its Studios is normally unbearable.

Not here. Has anyone noticed the regret in Harrison Ford's eyes, just before the movie's end? He hugs his dutifully rescued bland wife, and fighting back his tears he whispers "I love you baby". Alas, not to her: to the soul of the fragile, exciting, dangerous, scandalous little drifter who died in his arms; and to the brief dash of "walking on the wild side" that, for a few precious days, brought excitement - and guilt feelings, given the circumstances - in an otherwise very respectable and utterly boring life. Those who can't connect with that, can always watch Harrison Ford in films directed by Steven Spielberg.

One of the stars is Paris

[imursel · 8/10 · 22 December 2013]

A great suspense movie of Roman Polanski in a Hitchcockian style. One of the beloved theme of great master is already here: looking for a vanished person. I think Frantic is one of the movies more successful through the films with the plot located in Paris. Polanski tells us the story with great suspense involving the city of Paris like a character of the film. All movie spends on the Parisian places and rooftops. The music of Ennio Morricone also is a great element of the film success that gives us a great mood. The characters as Harrison Ford and Emmanuel Seigne are superb in their roles too. I think a must see movie if you love great oeuvres of Hitchcock and you love Paris.

An enjoyably stylish film that is quite thrilling without resorting to gimmicks or tricks

[bob the moo · 16 May 2004]

Richard and Sondra Walker return to Paris for the first time since their honeymoon for him to attend a medical conference. While Richard is in the shower, Sondra leaves the hotel and vanishes. Unsure of where she has gone or if she left under duress or not, Richard begins a search that quickly reveals that she has gone missing. A mix-up with luggage and a smuggled substance lead him into the life of the mysterious Michelle who is more mixed up with his wife's disappearance than she lets on.

I have seen this film several times and I think the fact that it isn't a spectacularly gimmicky film is a big part of the reason why it doesn't really stick in my mind over the years. For this reason I watched it again yesterday as I'd forgotten most of the plot and felt it would be like seeing it all over again for the first time. The film takes the simple plot and uses the 'object' as a McGuffin of sorts of quite a big chunk of the film – we don't need to know why his wife has been kidnapped, only that Richard is desperate to get her back and is sucked into a situation he knows nothing of. In this regard the film really works well and manages to keep the pace up even if some of the characters are difficult to fit into the narrative. As a story it lacks fireworks and has a rather understated feel but it still works really well and I enjoyed the simplicity of the story combined with the ease with which it involved me.

The cast are good but it is Ford's film and he leads it really well. He convinces as the man becoming increasingly 'frantic' and he manages to involve humour as his character becomes savvier about what is happening and also appears to be seedier and less professional as a result! Seigner is good even if her character is easier to play; she is a fun character and her performance is good. Outside of these two, few are memorable and it is to their credit (mostly Ford's) that the film is still strong regardless. Other familiar faces include Pinon, Weeks and Huddleston.

Overall this is a solid little thriller that is rather old fashioned in it's telling. It relies on good set pieces within a good mystery plot rather than explosions or car chases and is much more satisfying as a result. Small bits of it don't totally come together but the overall effect is one of a simple film that is delivered with style and is enjoyable to watch.

Dark and dangerous goings on in the City of Lights

[sol1218 · 7/10 · 28 July 2006]

(Some Spoilers) The movie "Frantic" slowly gets you to like it. It takes it's audience from a simple case of suitcases being innocently switched at the airport to an nail-biting off camera kidnapping. Then to a tour through the Paris underworld and nightlife to finally a confrontation with this mysterious Mid-East terrorist organization. The terror group is dealing with the smuggling of top-secret US government nuclear trigger mechanisms that, if in the wrong hands, can vaporise entire cities.

American Doctor Richard Walker, Harrison Ford, and his wife Sondra, Betty Buckley, arrive from San Francisco at the Grand Hotel in Paris for a doctors convention where Dr. Walker is to be the featured speaker. Finding that his luggage had been switched at the airport Walker calls TWA Airline giving them all the information including the switched luggage ticket number. With her husband taking a shower Sondra is seen answering the door and then disappears out of sight and out of the movie.

It takes a while for Walker, who thought that his wife went out shopping, to realize that something is terribly wrong when Sandra doesn't show up and goes to the hotel lobby to find out what happened to her. Walker is later told by the desk clerk that Sandra left the hotel together with a Arabic-looking man.

Walker frantic that his wife was kidnapped goes to the local police only to be told that she may be cheating on him, it's something that seems to be very common among married couples in the city. Even the US embassy doesn't seem at all too concerned or caring about his wife's disappearance. That has a desperate and determined Walker go out on his own to track down where she is, alive or dead, and who's responsible for her disappearance.

Opening up the switched luggage Walker finds a pack of matches from the Blue Parrot nightclub and the name and telephone number of a person named Dede on it. Walker also inadvertently finds the hidden nuclear trigger that he at first thinks is a ***SPOILER*** toy model of the Statue of Liberty. Finding out at the Blue Parrort that Dede is a drug dealer Walker goes to his apartment in the seedy side of the city only to find Dede, Doll Boyer, brutally murdered. Waiting in the hallway Walker sees this young woman Michelle, Emmanuell Seigner, enter Dede's pad and grabs her trying to find out what Dede and herself had to do with his wife's Sandra's disappearance. To Walker's surprise he finds that Michelle, after a bit of convincing on his part, was the person who's luggage she mistakenly has and that she's also some kind of illegal courier for a local Paris drug gang.

You and both Walker and Michelle at first think that there's illegal drugs involved with,or in, the luggage that Walker mistakenly received at the Paris Airport. As the real truth slowly and shockingly comes out with the Arab terrorists gang Israeli Mossad and now even the US embassy getting into the mix it becomes more and more evident that there's something far more serious and explosive in that misplaced suitcase. There's also the fact that if the suitcase is ever gotten into the wrong hands it can lead to a nuclear holocaust.

It takes a while for "Frantic" to unravel it's storyline, like most good thrillers do, but it's actor Harrison Ford who makes it come alive with his frantic and almost hysterical search for his missing and kidnapped wife Sondra. As he goes together with, an at first very reluctant, Michelle through the length and breath of the city to finally get his wife's kidnappers to release her. This only after a deadly shootout between the kidnappers and the perusing Mossad agents. Which lead to the precious and deadly triggering device to plant itself at the bottom of Paris' Seine River, where it could do no harm to anyone, courtesy of Dr. Richard Walker.

A Genre Film with Genre Conventions

[jzappa · 7/10 · 2 February 2009]

One of Polanski's most Americanized efforts, Frantic, begins very well. Through a leisurely exposition between a happily married doctor and wife on a business trip in Paris, Polanski's camera at some stage begins to tell us things through ominous zoom-ins and steadicams. We see him thinking, wondering when he should start worrying. We are comfortably in the same perspective as Harrison Ford's protagonist. But this pace becomes an obstruction later on. This ironically low-key thriller's action is periodically interrupted by unnecessary scenes with no subtext, for example a dance sequence between the internally agitated Ford and Emmanuelle Seigner.

It is a true paradox that pace is an issue for a film called Frantic. So much so that I wonder upon reflection if it was Polanski's intention to compress the briskness of the action to familiarize us with the protagonist's internalization of fear, worry and bewilderment. Whatever the answer is, it was not a conducive creative device.

The first half is promising in large part because of Polanski's experience with the loss of his own wife to random circumstance with murderers. It made me feel as if I was going to see an intense, personal film that dealt with that eternally wounding part of his life, sadly one of the many. Alas, I didn't get that. Frantic is a formula suspense film easily pigeonholed with the rest of the 1980s Hollywood thrillers.

The hero's essential obstacle being that he's a fish out of water, an American businessman in Paris who speaks no French and thus can hardly navigate his way through the city, much less a trail to his wife in which time is of the essence. The film would truly live up to a degree of tension if his interactions with Parisians were realistic. They all seem willing to help, none of them annoyed by an American archetype anxiously babbling English at them in their native country. I've heard many stories from friends and writers who've been to Paris. They do not bless Paris with a reputation for being nice and accommodating to English-speaking Americans. One friend told me that he was not allowed to have his passport back unless he asked for it in French. Another told me that when he tried to order a meal at a restaurant in English, the clerk slammed her hand on the table and ordered that he speak French. My own experience in Paris might be vastly different, and it is no doubt a beautiful and culturally rich city, but there would inevitably be at least a blemish of resistance against Ford's conventionally American character.

There is, however, a great sense of the hero's naivété with danger or intrigue. The tone is never too tongue-in-cheek to diminish the tension of the narrative and never too pitiful to deprive him of his credibility as a serious dramatic character. There is a terrific scene in which he must enter a woman's apartment from the outside ledge through a diagonal window. He must carry a satchel with important contents. He is also a well-fed middle-aged American doctor who never thought by any stretch of the imagination that a simple business trip would require him to do this. There is a not-so-good scene that suggests the same thing, but leaves us with a major story gap, during a scene at an airport where he's scared that the contraband-sniffing dogs will discover the dope in the suitcase. The dogs don't, and yet not only does Ford appear to have forgotten about at least a gram of coke in his pocket, the police dogs don't notice either.

Generally, Frantic is a genre film with genre conventions: the dubious female companion, the inept American intelligence agents, American paranoia concerning terrorism and a predictable ending that was only unpredictable to me because I felt sure that Polanski would take bolder steps. It is nevertheless an entertaining movie, but not a riveting one and not particularly memorable.

Thoughtful Suspense with Great Locales

[pc95 · 7/10 · 17 February 2009]

I like Harrison Ford, and this movie directed by Roman Polanski is a good outing for him. It's an 80s movie filmed in Europe with a great French/American mixed cast. Ford seems a bit subdued in his role and this helps supporting characters stand out - most especially Emanuelle Seigner who gives the best performance in the movie. She plays a savvy French street girl in the Paris Underworld drug scene. We've seen Ford in better movies of this type before and after but never-mind. "Frantic"'s Paris setting, although dated, is stunning completely supporting a foreign environment especially important in the first 3rd of the movie which may be the strongest part of the movie which is evident in the thought and preparation into clues circumstance. The movie is more of a suspense and mystery rather than action, and it does a solid job of this. A few of the scenes/dialog are not too well thought out or believable but they're not enough to detract. Music is period specific 80s but interesting. Recommended 80s and Ford flick.

Underrated, brilliant masterpiece!

[bartw · 10/10 · 15 July 2001]

I really don't understand how this movie could have such a low score at this site. Perhaps the European atmosphere doesn't appeal as much to Americans as it does to Europeans.....just like most french top-films never made it to the US.

Nevertheless, Roman Polanski is terribly underrated as a master of suspence. In fact, looking back at Hitchcock's movies (which is unfair, since they've been made in a completely different era) I don't think he ever made movies written this well.

For some reason most of the time film making starts with putting the director together with some of the best or most popular actors of that period. But this one certainly doesn't.... It shows that Polanski wrote this himself, with his close friend and film-writing-partner, because he really knows what this story is about - he knows where to be funny, where to make it tense, where to make things kind of 'sensual'.

The weird thing is, that looking at all the things that happen in this movie, it's still so relatively shot, and doesn't feel at all too paced, or rushed. No, it rather feels like you are watching a 4 hour movie.

Anyway, those who have ever lost track of someone (for a short moment) in a strange, big city or those who have ever tried to find out something in France, will know and recognize exactly what Harrison Ford's character is going through - people not taking you seriously, people who don't care, people who refuse (or aren't able) to help you in your own language. All these things are put in this movie, so well, that -at least for me- it is really very realistic.

Most writers and directors nowadays seem to ruin most great movies/thrillers by not being able to make a good ending to the developing story. At one point our main character has got to find out what is happening....and how to do that, without taking away the suspence is incredibly difficult. Roman Polanski has done this very well, by not making this story too complicated and slowly unraveling a -looking back- simple mistery. There is no need to glue parts of the story together to make it all fit, or just skip parts to make it easier for him/you.

No, this is the first movie I've seen where when someone looses his shoes on a roof, he has to walk barefoot the next day. Most movies just ignore these little facts, but Roman makes it always difficult for himself in order to make it more easy (or, more easy to believe) for us.

There are no things that make me wonder 'how this is possible' - no, if you are a well known surgeon, many other surgeons from all over the world will know you. And if you will go to a convention in Paris, it's not at all unrealistic that you will run into a few of your friends...even when it's such a big city. Having problems with luggage when you're flying, isn't unrealistic too...nor is the story of this movie, the reason why what happened, happened.

Although I've never understood why our friend wanted his own wife back, instead of staying with the beautifull french girl ;) Again, that's what most people would do in real life....

Bart

Espionage thriller set in Paris with nice performance by Harrison Ford

[ma-cortes · 6/10 · 18 November 2010]

¨Frantic" is a vibrant and exciting thriller of Polish director Roman Polanski . The story deals with the assistance to a conference in Paris of doctor "Richard Walken" (Harrison Ford) and his wife (Betty Buckley), and reliving their honeymoon. In the hotel room when Richard goes out the bathroom after a shower , he discovers his spouse has disappeared on the first day of their journey . Now , at an unknown metropolis , without speaking a word of French language and agonizingly alone , "Walken" undertakes the search throughout wet streets and under rainy sky . As the only track he has results to be a number of telephone written on a matchbox, and from there the issue will be complicate , becoming for the American doctor in a nightmare . He's only helped by the US Embassy assistant (John Mahoney) and a strange French young Emmanuelle Seigner (Polanski's wife).

The pace of the film is well made and carefully controlled ; as the plot finds its aim , for that reason is a story that entertains and works . The picture is packed with thrills, intrigue, tension , suspense and blending the Hitchcock style with the Polanski's particular narrative . Harrison Ford gives a magnificent interpretation in this picture , perhaps one of his best acting . Harrison Ford makes one of his best roles and believable in his character as doctor drawn into espionage and who launches to rescue his lovely wife , though never really cuts loose . The film has a large number of memorable scenes that are the Polanski's stamp : as the start of the movie, the thrilling scenes on the roof , and the unforgettable dancing that Ford dances Emmanuelle Seigner , among others . In addition , there appears ample support cast as American as French actors in very secondary intervention as David Huddleston , Alexandra Stewart , Yorgo Voyagis ,Gerard Klein , Dominigue Pinon , among them . It has an acceptable photography by Sobozinsky , though is urgent a remastering. Rare and sad musical score by the maestro Ennio Morricone .

"Frantic" is a moving thriller from the beginning to the final in which Polanski carries out one of the basic guidelines of the genre : as he creates thriller from roles of the daily life and well written by the same Polanski and his usual screenwriter Gerard Brach . Furthermore , Polanski maintains its grip thanks to Harrison Ford 's outstanding and credible acting . Rating : 6, passable and well worth watching .

Something Happened on the Way to Paris.

[nycritic · 10/10 · 6 April 2005]

Roman Polanski has an interesting way of returning to tell the story of a simple person whose surroundings, while completely familiar, suddenly become alien and even dangerous. With ROSEMARY'S BABY, neighbors plotted against misguided Mia Farrow; in REPULSION, Catherine Deneuve lost her mind; in THE TENANT, another apartment became the center of some odd occurrences. Even in THE PIANIST, the main character, played by Adrien Brody, slowly gets the rug pulled off his feet as his surroundings become the setting for the horrific Holocaust.

FRANTIC came out in 1988 to critical acclaim but little notice but has since then enjoyed an interesting life on HBO who keeps playing it over and over again. A movie that tells the story of an American couple (played by Harrison Ford and Betty Buckley) who get caught in a web of intrigue while vacationing in Paris, France, FRANTIC is an exceptional and overlooked thriller that evolves slowly, but not too slowly -- deliberately -- and gives its main characters ample time to evolve from how we first see them to full blooded people in a nasty, alien, deadly situation.

Harrison Ford gives yet another of his powerful, masculine performances as Dr. Richard Walker, who is at the center of this intrigue, and his is a performance equally comparable to that of James Stewart in VERTIGO and THE MAN WHO KNEW TOO MUCH. As a tourist searching for his missing wife, Ford displays an amazing amount of control over his character who is virtually in every scene in the movie: we see how he goes from loving husband, to befuddled, to angry at the apparent nonchalance of the Parisian authorities, to flat-out taking matters to his hands, while thankfully not being overblown to the status of an indestructible male god wielding phallic guns that shoot endlessly for the plot's convenience and who not only gets his wife back but a sexy girl in tow. Watch for a quiet moment when he is talking to his daughter over the phone. We never cut to the daughter -- that would have ruined the sequence -- but the camera stays on his face as he speaks to her, listening to the haunting Grace Jones song that pops up ominously, and something she says gives us a hint he and his wife may have gone through rough patches, which tells layers of the Walker's dynamics together even though they're only seen together for the first 10 minutes. The restraint in his face is so intense that it's a wonder he doesn't explode in tears of rage and impotence, because he has to hide the fact that no, he isn't having a swell time in Paris, but also, Mom's gone missing, and no one seems to know what to do, and he is feeling like the world's closed in on him in this alien place.

A lesser movie would have had more exposition of the facts and used a more conventional approach. Polanski has always been a master of subtlety: the scene when Sondra Parker disappears is the best scene in the entire film because it's done without intrusiveness, which makes her disappearance the more troubling and even though Buckley only has several minutes of screen time, she is all we think about; the plot revolves around her. Never do we see flash-cuts; it's all left to us. Never do we see sudden red-herrings that lead nowhere -- here, like in the aforementioned Hitchcock movies, they build upon the story. Never do we see high officials closing in from all around -- this is a resolution that involves the players and only them. Music is kept to a low-key presence, scenes of violence only occur sporadically, which is uncommon for a thriller. Scenes are played out so we don't get too much information as to what exactly is happening, but not so little that allows for those pesky "surprise" endings. This only makes us go through what Ford is going through right to the end.

Interestingly enough, there is an extremely subtle comedy (also a Hitchcock trademark) interspersed throughout: scenes of emotional tension are followed by an almost casual references to humor, and much of it comes from Seigner who plays the tough cookie who only wants her 10,000 francs and even sprays mace on the faces of two Embassy officials (one of them played by John Mahoney) who don't give much help and also casually steals a wallet from a cab driver because, as she practically states, "He won't be needing it anymore." This is a great move -- to make this movie so totally dramatic would have made it feel longer than its 120 minutes.

FRANTIC is a stand-alone thriller from the 80s that feels anything but a product from that decade.

The Suitcase

[claudio_carvalho · 7/10 · 7 October 2020]

The prominent American surgeon Dr. Richard Walker (Harrison Ford) travels to a medical conference in Paris with his wife Sondra Walker (Betty Buckley). The first time they went to Paris was in their honeymoon and now the intend to celebrate the return to the City of Light. In their hotel room, Richard realizes that his wife brought a wrong suitcase. Richard takes a shower and Sondra receives a phone call and leaves the room. Richard sleeps and when he wakes up, he realizes that Sondra is missing. Soon he discovers that she was kidnapped, and he contacts the French police and the American embassy, but he does not feel any interest in the agents to search Sondra. Dr. Walker decides to investigate and soon he meets the owner of the suitcase, the smalltime drug smuggler Michelle (Emmanuelle Seigner) that decides to help him to find his wife in the underground of Paris.

"Frantic" is a full of action thriller by Roman Polanski, with a good story and screenplay. The plot is developed in the right pace and the beginning is very realistic when the couple with jetlag arrives at the hotel. The bureaucracy of the police and embassy agents is another good part of the story. Everything changes when the gorgeous and sexy Emmanuelle Seigner appears on the screen changing the pace of the plot. The performances of Harrison Ford and Emmanuelle Seigner and excellent. The conclusion is too dark. My vote is seven.

Title (Brazil): "Busca Frenética" ("Frantic Search")

Quiet, but intense and quite excellent

[walterlv · 10/10 · 2 July 2004]

The title does not 100 percent reflect the atmosphere of the film. Yes, as Ford's character rummages through a strange city looking for his kidnapped wife he does become "frantic", it is in a very quiet fashion. No screaming or fits of hysterics, but you can sense it in Ford's acting. Speaking of acting, this film is almost all Ford and Emmanuelle Seigner, very few of the supporting characters make much of a mark here. For me, the most intriguing part is the almost total lack of chemistry between those two characters. Though they are in most of the second half of the film together, neither one cares a rip about the other's wish (him=to get his wife back, her=to get her money). But if you think about it, how much would a young, drug-pushing European girl and a middle-aged, successful American doctor have in common anyway? Theirs is an inspired pairing, and a very good movie is the result. Watch this one.

Decent thriller

[JohnSeal · 6/10 · 1 April 2000]

It's not Polanski's best, but he's been off his game for 20 years, so we should be happy he delivered as decent a film as this one. Eschewing large doses of violence, Polanski manages to weave a fairly taut and interesting story of mixed up suitcases. Until the films Hollywood ending it's most enjoyable, the major problem being the presence of Roman's gal pal Seigner in the role of the beautiful smuggler who will steal your heart away....oops, must have been quoting from the Hollywood pressbook there. Anyway, Frantic is worth seeing if you like tales of intrigue, or Harrison Ford, who is really quite good.

Boring, unbelievable

[songjiang2000 · 1/10 · 5 July 2014]

I created an account on IMDb just to rate this movie.

Atmosphere? Yes. The rest was pretty lousy.

I love a good thriller and can even forgive a hole or two in the plot, but this one was unforgivable. Here are just some of the holes (if you want to ignore my advice and watch the movie anyway, don't read what follows). First, why would the kidnapper take the wife instead of the suitcase? That makes no sense. How is kidnapping her going to get the thing back? Second, why didn't the husband take the first eyewitness (or his friends) to the police? Third, when he found Dede dead, why didn't he go to the police and say, hey, look: a matchbook from the suitcase with a murdered guy's name on it--coincidence? Fourth, why didn't the husband ask Michelle what it was she brought back? That might be important! Fifth, when the police finally believed him, why didn't he let them handle it? Sixth, he's hiding in Michelle's apartment while she is being interrogated by the bad guys--so he takes off ALL his clothes and jumps into her bed to pretend to be her irate boyfriend--this is supposed to scare off these brutal criminals?!! Seventh, after the husband took off his shoes and socks to keep from slipping on the roof, why did he let the girl go out there in tights and high heels? Duh! Eighth, those French sniffer dogs should be fired for not finding the coke in his pocket--what was the whole purpose of him having the coke, anyway, just the "white lady" confusion? Lame. Ninth, so at the end, when the husband destroys the maguffin--the bad guys are just going to hang their heads? Really?!! They're not going to beat the living daylights out of him? Finally, why did the girl have to die? Are we supposed to feel sorry for the husband at that point? Did he fall in love with her? "Puerile" is the word for a director who thinks he would.

I read a user review that said everything in this movie fits together. Puhleeeeaaaaase! I feel like this movie was a bunch of hacks trying to make a quick buck. Did Polanski even show up on the set or did he just delegate to others ("make it look like Hitchcock") and put his name on it? It does have the feel of Hitchcock but not the intelligence. Don't waste your time like I did, unless you're a die-hard Hitchcock fan and want to see a failed homage.

Suspension of Dramatic Tension

[tonio_kroger · 21 September 1999]

What was truly amazing about Frantic was Polanski's ability to turn ordinary situations (finding and opening a briefcase, climbing on the stairs, grabbing the timing device, even driving from the airport) into extended and memorable scenes where the level of dramatic tension was extended to the point beyond slight interest.

Take the scene in the bedroom when Harrison Ford is originally searching for the briefcase and trying to open it up. Polanski does not end with the briefcase here. Later scenes involving it evoke a remembrance of the detail that went into crafting the first scene. Ford's trip onto the rooftop is treated the same way. The scene does not end with him neatly hiding on the roof. It is wracked with complications. The four sitting at the table about to grab the stolen timing device. Even the dance scene, surrounded with potential spies and unknowns, fills itself with Ford's eroticism and paranoia equally well.

The movie is filled with other examples like these, which make it a slow and delayed series of expectant occurences. The movie flows well from a sequence of dramatic sources of tension. I cannot believe that I had seen it earlier. It is truly a shame that Polanski is effectively banished from this country.

Harrrison Ford's wife has suddenly gone missing in Paris. Where could she be? Harrison Ford starts searching for his wife...

[imseeg · 6/10 · 3 July 2019]

The start of this movie is reasonably suspenseful, because Harrison Ford's wife has suddenly gone missing in Paris. This mystery is being portrayed in a quite fascinating way. However later on in the movie, (while STILL searching for his wife), Harrison Ford gets involved in action chases with bad guys. From then on this movie starts to become less interesting, because director Roman Polanski isnt an action movie director whatsoever and the action is somewhat clumsy looking. There is more bad news: the other French supporting actors are rather mediocre. And the photography, editing and sound are looking and sounding quite bland. That is an astonishing NEGATIVE achievement to be able to make Paris look bland...

This movie fails to become grand, while it wants to a sweeping romantic thriller. Which it is not. Still good enough and worthwile a watch, because of the great suspense at the start and Harrison Ford's overall decent acting performance. But this is nothing above average. What's worse, near the end, things become increasingly unbelievable storywise...

Interesting and clever film with a disappointing finish

[TheHande · 6/10 · 29 June 2008]

Frantic is an interesting culture-clash drama. The film goes to lengths to create the feeling of unease in the viewer with plot-threads of which one can't be completely sure until the story begins to flow. Harrison Ford plays the perfect role of a sympathetic protagonist with a simple and clear goal that he tries to achieve.

What this film loses in its final act is the uncertainness that makes its beginning so appealing. The plot nuclear-device throws the film into the realm of the unreal and does it in a most unsatisfying way. After a very down to earth beginning the film attempts to rush to a hypered climax which eventually winds down into a sorry, sympathetic ending.

Still, this movie has a strong and mystical vibe which carries it well through much of its first two-thirds. With a slightly unimpressive finish it is still interesting and clever film.

Wild goose chase

[allanmichael30 · 6/10 · 30 September 2019]

At over 30 years old this movie seemed so outdated and a bit familiar, but I know I have never watched it before, its good but not brilliant. Thank god that nightclubs have their names on matches but in case that was not a big enough clue there's a keyring featuring their logo too.

Hitchcockian in so many ways

[jackafca · 10/10 · 14 May 2006]

Frantic is a movie that bears, like Hitchock's films, repeated viewing. At first sight it might appear a Hollywood thriller of the genre that has been too prevalent lately with violence, thrills and miracle rescues. This film is much more than that. The scene where the wife tries to speak to her showering husband and he can't hear, has ominous suggestion, and echoes Hitchcock's 'silent exposition' scenes form Torn Curtain and Rear Window. It is not a copy, because Polanski has taken the idea and made it fit an entirely new scenario. The humour flits along with the tension. The scene where the husband is kicked to the ground wearing nothing but a teddy bear is a welcome relief, and the scene on the roof, like the unlikely teaser in Vertigo stands up well, despite having been imitated so many times by so many other directors. Frantic has many moments of honest acting that could almost count as cinema verite moments. At the end of the film, these moments and characters stay with you. You have been emotionally challenged. If Hitchcock had lived into the 1980s and been given this script, he would probably have done the film in a way not altogether dissimilar. A triumph for 1980s Hollywood. -Phil Kafcaloudes

Not Great, But Not Terrible Either

[socrates4 · 6/10 · 10 April 2019]

FRANTIC is not Roman Polanski's best film. It is not Harrison Ford's best film. It is neither of their worst film. There are some fun parts and the plot is not bad. It's nothing too original either. The music is good. The acting is good. It is a bit slow at times and seems to drag on during certain scenes. It is exciting at times.

Harrison Ford is the best thing in this movie. If you're a fan of his work you should see it. You won't be disappointed. If you don't like Harrison Ford you might want to skip this one. Unless you're fan of Roman Polanski's films, in which case you should see it. If not, skip it. Recommend to Ford and Polanski fans.

A great 80's film from one of the world's best directors

[J_FONS · 10/10 · 28 March 2003]

I highly recommend this film to this site members and visitors so that they can appreciate an excellent drama-thriller combination from director Roman Polanski. This film shows one of Harrison Ford's best, if not his best performance ever, and the introduction of Emmanuelle Seigner, whose character plays the most important role in the movie. Though the story takes place in a beautiful city, Polanski takes you to Paris' ordinary dark streets and alleys, and also gives us a realistic view of how good or dangerous people can be. Up to this day, I really don't know why this movie has not been that popular in the U.S. and even less why it didn't get nominated for any major awards when it was well done. Now that Polanski is popular again, I hope movie collectors take the chance to see why he is one of the greatest of all time.

Frantic

[cultfilmfan · 7/10 · 10 September 2005]

Frantic, is about an American doctor named Richard Walker, who travels to Paris, France along with his wife Sondra. Once they get settled into the hotel Richard, takes a shower and soon leaves the bathroom to find that Sondra is gone. He asks around the hotel and nobody has seen her and nobody has. Not knowing much of the French language Richard, finally finds a young woman named Michelle, who seems to know more than she lets on and may help him to get back to Sondra. Frantic, has good direction, a good script, good performances by everyone involved, good original music, good cinematography and good film editing. Frantic, is a well made film and has some good acting and a good script that is smart and well paced which really makes this film a lot better than other thrillers. It relies more on style than violence and special effects and things blowing up and it is very well put together and constructed. There is enough here for a thinking movie fan and enough action near the end of the film for action film fans as well. It is also well made and works well as a psychological thriller and also as a drama and even a mystery. This is a well put together film which is helped by a good script, direction and performances.

Simplicity at its best

[SoldierOfFortune · 10/10 · 17 April 2003]

An excellent film from start to finish. The plot is somewhat simple, but the acting of Harrison Ford (Walker) and Emmanuelle Seigner (Michelle) throughout make it an unmissable movie. At times it seemed as if Walker and Michelle would 'get it on', especially in the dance scene in The Touch of Class Club. However Walker didn't let his mind slip for one minute, totally focused on rescuing his wife.

Superb Polanski-esque thriller.

[Ben_Cheshire · 6/10 · 27 April 2004]

(spoilers)

For me, Polanski-esque is defined by what i saw in Frantic: a strange, electric world where bad things happen for no good reason to ordinary folks, sexuality bubbles everywhere and everyone in a minor position of authority tries to take advantage of you.

Frantic is a superb thriller. Plenty of location shooting makes what we're seeing so real, and helps us get into the story. Ford is terrific, and, as always, incredible to watch. About the impossibility of getting things done legally, through the bureaucracy, when you just want to find a missing loved one.

Music by legendary spaghetti western composer Ennio Morricone is good intrigue music, well-fitted to the chic-trash world of Paris' club scene, where certain key scenes (though certainly not most of the picture) are set.

Best scene: the scene in the club: the strangeness of these two characters from different countries, different stratas of society and different generations failing frantically to dance with each other while this strange, yet sensual and electric music plays - wow!

Huge Plot Holes Kill It

[andrewrye-06535 · 2/10 · 15 September 2021]

It's always interesting reviewing films with the benefit of hindsight.

I watched this just after it was released and I would have been in my mid twenties and loved it.

I just re-watched it and thought hang on. Far too many whys.

Why did they take his wife? They must have had her suitcase to get who they were and where they were staying. Why not just ring from the reception and go 'hey, I have your case, you have mine lets swap' Job done, no movie. Why did Mrs Walker go downstairs and not make sure her husband knew where she was going? Why did they keep asking 'have you got it' when there was no way he could have known what they were talking about, the trigger was sealed in the statue. My first thought when he went through the bag was why did she have a statue of liberty when the flight was from San Francisco. And why the cigarettes when she didn't smoke? Then, why put the whole suitcase in the locker when it had her personal items in it? Yep, saw the lingerie. She would have needed her stuff. How did she know there were no drugs in the case? She said she had done it before but this time they didn't say what she was carrying? So she assumed no drugs because they said so? No one cared that they had a dead guy in the car when they dumped it.?She wouldn't take the Doctors money but demanded her money from the kidnappers before handing it over. Her involvement actually made no sense as time went on, she could have easily got her money and left. How come they never heard Walker bumbling about on the roof with the suitcase (which was an absolutely lame scene) but heard him when he bumped something in the the bathroom. Why was he naked in bed? They would have checked the apartment for other people before interrogating her, wouldn't they? Why was he naked? She wasn't. Why didn't his wife ask who she was at the end, she had no clue? And why not involve the Police....in anything!

Yeah, a bit too much style over substance, it's a 2.