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Title: Frantic?!?
Review: Frantic? Hardly! This poorly-directed and produced film really rides on the back of Harrison Ford and a few, albeit short, scenes of fast action, none of which really amount to creating much suspense. The character of Sondra is poorly depicted by Betty Buckley, an actress whose small part should have served the role of building sympathy for her plight. Instead her brief moments at the beginning of the film tend to disengage the audience. There is never any great compassion developed for her as Buckley unwittingly portrays her character as snobbish, difficult, and unloveable to some degree. In terms of directing, Polanski misses the mark as there is rarely any sense of urgency or parallel understanding transferred over to the audience; the movie is disjointed at times. It would be easy to become as ambivalent about the whole thing as the French police. I would recommend a strong pot of coffee for this one.
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