Overall Rating
  Awesome: 56.16%
Worth A Look: 36.95%
Average: 6.4%
Pretty Bad: 0.49%
Total Crap: 0%
13 reviews, 125 user ratings
|
|
| Run Lola Run |
by Brian McKay
"The Third time really is the charm . . ."
|
So, I was watching Lola sprint through the streets of Berlin for the third time, when I realized that her entire existence is just a game. The narrator likens it to soccer, but to me it's more like an old-school video game (you remember the arcade kind where you only got 3 lives, long before the advent of PC gaming and the quicksave key). Or, perhaps, a game of chance - Roulette, for instance. 3 spins. 3 chances to get things right. We should all be so lucky.Lola (Franka Potente) is a cute eurotrash girl with bright red hair and a panic-stricken boyfriend named Mannie (Moritz Bleibtreu) on the phone. Turns out Manni, a wannabe gangster, has just fucked up his first major assignment as a mob bagman. When trying to avoid the cops on a train, he just happened to "misplace" a bag containing 100,000 Dueschmarks. His bosses, a trio of large men with shaved heads (why do all the movie euro-thugs always have shaved heads?), are going to break every bone in his body when they show up in 20 minutes and find Manni sans cash.
Lola tells him to hang on and wait for her. She'll meet him in 20 minutes with the cash - somehow. As the camera pans around her, flashing images of everyone she knows as she mutters their names (and further cementing the Roulette idea), she decides on her estranged father, who just happens to be a bank manager. (Well, duh! Daddy runs a bank? He should have been the obvious choice).
Time to run!
She sprints from the apartment, never looking back and not slowing down for much of anything. She bumps into various characters along the way, and we are treated to fast-forward glimpses of how their lives will turn out. Her attempt to get the money and reach Manni in time fails, with fatal results. Game over, right?
Wrong. After all, this is a game, remember? Two lives left. Take another spin.
As she bolts out of the apartment again, Lola travels the same route - but this time, everything else is different. She bumps into the same characters, but this time the flash-forwards tell a much different story. It seems that everyone else is playing the game as well. Everyone gets another spin.
The film certainly has a lot going for it. Tom Twyker's frenzied direction is never dull, and casting his girlfriend Potente in the role was a smart choice. She gives an intriguing performance, and while I wouldn't exactly call her beautiful, she is oddly attractive and magnetic. And unlike, say, Sondra Locke (Clint Eastwood's ex-girlfriend, who dragged down way too many of his films), Potente can actually ACT. The supporting cast is excellent as well, especially Armin Rohde as the patronizing bank guard who calls Lola "the Little Princess," and who doubles as the film's narrator (or umpire, if you will). But what really sticks with you is the vivid imagery, especially the varied scenes of Lola running (and running and RUN-NING). Also on-par is the hypnotic soundtrack, an eclentic blend of German synth-pop and electronica that meshes seamlessly with Lola's triple-marathon. If you need some music to help you get in the mood to go running, this would be it.
Drive-In Triple-Feature Gasping-for-breath-man-I-gotta-quit-smoking Picks for Lola Rennt:
Fight Club- Gawd this movie rocks. David Fincher's greatest film, Ed Norton and Brad Pitt's best performances. Norton runs around quite a bit as well (in his boxers and carrying a gun . . . way to travel incognito, Sparky).
Marathon Man- Dustin Hoffman is a marathon runner in training who gets mixed up with some Nazi war criminals after they murder his brother. [Cheesy tag line]Now he's running for his life!!![/Cheesy tag line]
And if you like them eurotrash babes with red hair, don't forget Milla in The Fifth Element. Never has an ace bandage looked so enticing!Pop this in the DVD player, hop on the treadmill, and get ready to run your ass off. Oh, and don't be lazy and choose the English soundtrack. Watch it with the subtitles. Believe me, you'd rather hear Franka's acting in German than whoever the chick is that they got to do the English dub.
link directly to this review at http://www.efilmcritic.com/review.php?movie=2128&reviewer=258
originally posted: 10/15/02 10:05:40
![[printer]](/images/icon/printer.gif) printer-friendly format
|
 |
USA
18-Jun-1999 (R)
UK
N/A
Australia
21-Oct-1999 (MA)
|
|
Articles 
subscribe to this feed![[AllPosters.com]](/images/icon/ap.gif){kind=icon}
