The Lola Effect
- Review By:
- tpb
- Date:
- January 21, 2009
- Movie:
- Run Lola Run
- Director:
- Tom Tykwer
- Released:
- 1998
- Good Guy:
- Lola
- Played By:
- Franka Portente
- Bad Guy:
- Time
- Played By:
- The Clock
- MPAA Rating:
- R
- Family Friendly Ages:
- Young teens
This is a fascinatingly crafted, wonderfully acted, stunningly edited, non-stop, joy ride of a film. The opening credits are animated high-energy whimsy and set the tone for the opening scene where Lola (Franka Portente) picks up her red, ringing phone. It's Manni (Moritz Bleibtreu), her not-so-bright, aspiring-criminal boyfriend on the other end. He is panicked and standing in a phone booth beneath a large town center clock explaining how he has twenty minutes to get his hands on 100,000 German Marks to replace the 100,000 German Marks that he left on the subway. He was doing a job for Ronnie (Heino Ferch), the local mobster; turning diamonds into cash. The job was something of a test of Manni's mettle. However, on the subway ride, we see through a series of flashbacks, how he loses his focus when he tries to help a stumbling transient. The transient ends up with the money, Manni ends up in the phone booth, and Lola ends up trying to avert disaster by running from one end of the city to the other in a series of clever rewinds and 'do-overs'. Her Bozo-red hair and urban combat boots make for an oddly-clunky-looking marathoner, but don't be fooled. Lola is sure-footed, utterly competent, supremely capable, indefatiguable, smart and athletic. And watching her interact with the many characters she encounters on the run, and seeing how their circumstances and fates change when her own do is all part of the sport.
Run Lola Run is in German with subtitles. But the text isn't always necessary. This is one of those rare films that doesn't tell you what's going on - it shows you. And this is one great show to watch.
yay.