Frantic (1988)

DavidRamsay99

I am a big fan of Roman Polanski movies.
Everyone says Chinatown is his masterpiece but Frantic for me is a real gem that has been largely forgotten and overlooked.
The set up is simple.
Harrison Ford is a dull conservative middle aged Dr. Richard Walker attending a medical conference in Paris with his pretty but naive middle aged wife Sondra.
We learn that they have a teenage daughter who is throwing a party while her parents are away and a young son Richie. The couple were in Paris in 1968 so perhaps they were long haired hippies and Walker reveals later that he and his wife don't vote.
His wife vanishes in inexplicably prompting the cynical hotel security chief and the local cops to speculate she has ran out on her husband.
Frustrate Walker vainly pleads for help from the US Embassy encountering a bumbling bureaucrat played by John Moloney and his pompous boss.
He eventually gives up on official help and turns detective despite his complete lack of French trawling the seedy Parisian underworld following a trail of bedcrumbs which may lead to his wife's abductors along they being helped/impeded by a streetwise model/courier/student/prostitute played by Emmanuelle Seigner.
The movie is notable for being the first of Ford's "My Wife/My Family" movies where his wife or his family has been murdered/kidnapped by criminals or terrorists.
At the time Ford was better known for his roles as Han Solo or Indiana Jones so by stepping into a role where he is not particularly heroic, resourceful, tough and is extremely vulnerable is very refreshing.

Fox_In_Socks

What a film. You hit the nail on the head as regards Ford being in a vulnerable position and not a heroic character at all. It's a film that's quite funny in parts such as the girl taking cocaine while driving and a naked Ford being knocked unconscious whilst holding a giant stuffed bear

DavidRamsay99

Fox_In_Socks wrote: »

What a film. You hit the nail on the head as regards Ford being in a vulnerable position and not a heroic character at all. It's a film that's quite funny in parts such as the girl taking cocaine while driving and a naked Ford being knocked unconscious whilst holding a giant stuffed bear

The most memorable scene is Michelle in a red dress clinging to her fabulous slim young body as she dances seductively around Walker on a dance floor to I've Seen That Face Before (Libertango) by Grace Jones. If Walker was 20 years younger and unmarried he would be enjoying it. Instead he is guilty because he is super turned on, the girl is only a few years older than his teenage daughter and he has to keep his mind on his wife and the b*st*rds who have their hands on her!

If it was an Arnie movie the hero would be blowing craters in Paris with a rocket launcher and if it was a Clint movie snail eating baddies would be biting the dust courtesy of a .44 Magnum.

Instead Ford's hero is a man who knows nothing but a stethoscope and an operating room. If the same character had gone the road of a career in the police or the military he would be the ultimate badass but he didn't and Polanski keeps it real throughout the movie.