Frantic

  • 15
  • Roman Polanski (1988)
  • US
  • 114 min
Frantic
Film Review
Reviewed By
4 out of 5

Roman Polanski makes this account of doctor Harrison Ford looking for his missing wife in an antagonistic Paris deeply disturbing. When Ford's wife Betty Buckley - accompanying him to a medical conference - disappears from their hotel suite, reality becomes nightmare and solid citizen Ford disintegrates, resorting to increasingly desperate measures to find her. Emmanuelle Seigner, as a punkish free spirit, is a major flaw, but as a whole the movie - a variation on the Dirk Bogarde 1950 film So Long at the Fair - is a bad dream of surreal, often funny, conviction. It's a Hitchcockian idea, but Polanski embellishes it with his own baleful theme about the uneasy nature of human existence, which is given added tension by Ennio Morricone's dramatic score.

Plot Summary

Roman Polanski's nightmarish thriller starring Harrison Ford and Emmanuelle Seigner. American doctor Richard Walker and his wife Sondra arrive in Paris where he is due to deliver a paper to a medical conference. That evening Sondra goes missing from the hotel. As the hours pass with no word from her and no explanation for her sudden disappearance, Dr Walker becomes increasingly concerned for his wife's safety.

Cast and crew

Cast

Dr Richard Walker
Harrison Ford
Michelle
Emmanuelle Seigner
Sondra Walker
Betty Buckley
Williams
John Mahoney
Shaap
Jimmie Ray Weeks
Kidnapper
Yorgo Voyagis
Peter
David Huddleston
Gaillard
Gerard Klein
Hotel manager
Jacques Ciron

Crew

Director
Roman Polanski

Other Information

Language: 
English
Colour
Theatrical distributor: 
S F Films Dist Ltd
Guidance: 
May be edited for violence, swearing, drug abuse, sex scenes and nudity.
Available on video and DVD
Certificate 15
Categories
Drama

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