'FRANKIE & ALICE': Two and a Half Stars (Out of Five)
Halle Berry gives it her all pleading for another Oscar but fails miserably in this film based on a true story about a woman suffering from multiple personality disorder. It co-stars Stellan Skarsgard and Phylicia Rashad (a grade school crush of mine). It's written by a group of 7 writers (which is almost never a good sign), most of which have little to no experience, and directed by Geoffrey Sax (who's most notable film credits are directing the mediocre horror film 'WHITE NOISE' and the failed kids film 'ALEX RIDER: OPERATION STORMBREAKER'). The film was marketed as a possible Oscar contender but received no recognition whatsoever and got horrible reviews. Given the experience involved you can kind of see why (although I hate to point blame at areas like that).
Berry stars as Frankie Murdoch, a woman making ends meat by stripping at a local go-go club in the 1970's. As the viewer early on finds out, but she is unaware of, she suffers from 'dissociative identity disorder'. She struggles with two alternate personalities: one is a seven year old African American (like herself) with a genius I.Q. and the other is an older Southern white woman who is racist. After a couple accidents involving the other personalities while blacked out she turns to a psychiatrist (Skarsgard) for help. He helps her delve into her other personalities and embrace them in order to learn the nature of the disease, which involves a past loved one.
The film like I said wanted to be a major awards contender but the only nominations it received were at the African-American Film Critics Association and the NAACP Image Awards for picture and actress, which Berry won at the former (she was also nominated for best dramatic lead actress at the Golden Globes, but many of the nominees this year were so laughable it's hardly worth noting). The film received a 15 percent approval rating from critics (the average rating being 4.3 out of 10) on Rottentomatoes and a 5.6 (out of 10) user rating on IMDb by fans. I think the ingredients were there to make a good film but the director wasn't the right choice for this type of material and having so many writers almost never turns out too good. Skarsgard and Rashad are more than adequate in their roles but Berry tries so hard to deliver an impressive performance that she overacts a little and makes the film almost laughable at times. She's definitely good in the right role (as well as her Oscar winning role) but here she was either wrongfully cast or wrongfully motivated. The film as a whole has good production values and is nice to look at but the story is clichéd and uneventful. The characters aren't really involving either, which I think is probably a lot to do with the over blown screenplay. Still it's not a bad film and I enjoyed watching it to a certain extent, it's just nothing special either.
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