Franklyn (2008)

Franklyn is a film that is not what its advertised as. The film’s poster/DVD art and trailers focused on the fantastical elements of the story, but that is only a small part of the story. It is not the focus of the film. The result is many people seem to be giving the film a pass. I think that's wrong and I just want to take minute to say a short word about it

The film is actually the story of four people and how the connect. We have a father trying to locate his missing son, a young man trying to find love, a young woman trying to just get by in life and then there is the fantastical elements of a young man who becomes a masked vigilante of sorts in a hyper religious “alternate” world where everyone has to believe something. How the characters come together is the story. It’s a story about people trying to find and re-find themselves and reasons to go on.

I think this film is getting lost. Yes its readily available on DVD in the US and elsewhere but I think the film is confusing people. As I said at the outset the film is not a fantasy, it’s a story set now with part of it set somewhere else (I won’t go into that since what and where that is has a bearing on the rest of the story.)

I suspect that the producers and distributors of the story focused on the fantasy because it’s the easiest thing to market, but by putting so much emphasis on what is actually a small part of the story they’ve alienated the people who would really like the film, and disappointed those who who expected something else. I’ve recommended the film to some people who didn’t want to see it because its weird fantasy-which its not. I know I was thrown the first time I saw because it really wasn’t what I expected or I wanted. I liked it the first time through but for most of the film I was fighting it I didn’t like where it was going or what it was doing. At some point it clicked and my opinion of the film improved.

Is it the greatest thing ever? No, but it is very good. Its certainly a film that doesn’t deserve to be misplaced because the film is mis-represented by the promotional material.

If you need more than my word as a good reason to the film let it be Eva Green as the heroine. A very lost soul who is contemplating checking out, Green runs the gamut of emotions and proves there is more to this former Bond Girl then looks. It’s a performance that made me sit up and take notice.