Frank & Lola Michael Shannon, Imogen Poots, Michael Nyqvist. Directed by Matthew Ross. Not rated. Opens Friday at Brenden Palms and on VOD.
Michael Shannon is so good at playing volatile weirdos that his characters always seem on the verge of erupting into fits of rage, even when they’re calmly going about everyday business. That’s both an asset and a liability for Shannon’s performance as one of the title characters in Frank & Lola, a man who is prone to intense feelings but is also often sensitive and empathetic. Frank is a chef in a restaurant in downtown Las Vegas, where much of the movie takes place, and where he meets aspiring fashion designer Lola (Imogen Poots), to whom he has an instant attraction.
The couple’s strong attraction leads to conflicts that are just as strong, with Frank becoming sometimes dangerously jealous of other men in Lola’s life. Frank eventually travels to Paris to confront a man from Lola’s past, but his actions only make a fragile situation even worse. Although it’s structured like a thriller and has a tone of constant unease (thanks in part to Shannon’s inherent instability), the movie is more of a character study about a man who can’t stop picking apart his own apparent happiness. As such, Frank looms large over Lola, and Poots can't quite carry her end of the relationship (since she's often doing the emotional work for both of them). It makes for a lopsided story that is intriguing but eventually a bit unsatisfying, although it ends on an effectively ambiguous note.
Writer-director Matthew Ross may not be able to quite pull off the emotional authenticity, but he gets credit for his smart and realistic portrayal of Las Vegas, both downtown and the Strip, thanks no doubt to work from locals Chris Ramirez and Charles Cantrell of Lola Pictures, among others. The movie isn’t showy in its depiction of Las Vegas, but it also doesn’t downplay the city’s uniqueness. Ross takes a similar approach to depicting Paris during Frank’s international detour, and the result is a story grounded in a strong sense of place, with its spaces as distinctive as its characters. The story may get a bit muddled, but Ross delivers a promising debut that marks him as a talent to watch.
