Franklyn
Dir: Gerald McMorrow
2008
***
I feel a bit bad for giving this film such a low rating, especially as I thought it was a really clever and original idea. The visualisation of Jonathan Preest's alter-ego in his imagined (exaggerated) world of Meanwhile City is great stuff. Touching on the mental issues returning solders have intertwined with religious guilt - possibly heightened by the resent 'War on terror' - I wasn't sure of. I had no real problem with the switching from fantasy to reality per se, it's just that many of the sub-plots were pretty pointless and did not amount to anything close to the payoff the build up hinted towards. The end is such an anticlimax you start to wonder why you even bothered, which is such a shame because I still believe the foundations of this film are some of the most ingenious I've seen for quite some time. It would have made one hell of a graphic novel but as far as the film goes, it's was far too ambitious and I'm sad to say, it fails. I love it and hate it in equal measure but I only hate it so much because I love it so much, that's why I'm right down the middle on this one.