Franklyn - Ryan Phillipe is a Rorschach ripoff called Preest in an alternate futuristic metropolis where religion is law and he is the only atheist. E\/a Green is a troubled art student in real-world London who works her suicide attempts into her modern art pieces; and Sam Riley plays Milo, a heartbroken young man whose fiancee left him at the altar on their wedding rehearsal day (also in London). As the story goes on, the different realities and personas of these characters begin to inexplicably merge.
First off, I have to say, for a directorial debut this is DAMN impressive. A lot of work has gone into cinematography here and it really pays off. Preest's dark, gothic home of Meanwhile City is far from original but some of the cityscapes are really impressive, namely the three mile-high cathedral complete with gigantic angel statues. It's hard to tell that this is a Film4 production made with a limited budget.
That said, Franklyn still needed a little more work to round it off. It's like an uncut diamond: real pretty to look at, but incredibly hard to follow. The pace builds nicely and you start seeing symbols from Meanwhile bleeding into the real world which is cool and to be honest, quite chilling the first time you notice it. But then the movie seems to rush towards its climax which seems unnecessary given it's meagre 95 minute runtime. If the movie had been allowed to build and play out for even half an hour longer, it could have been a lot better than it was.
I was disappointed with the casting of Ryan Phillipe as the faithless convict Preest (although didn't fail to notice the irony of his name, applied with all the subtlety of a sledgehammer), doubly so when I learned that Ewan McGregor had signed on for the role, but pulled out when he broke his leg. He would have done a far better job.
It's a good watch, and amazing for a debut film. The review on the DVD case calls it "The Matrix meets Donnie Darko". It is nothing close to this, at all. It's an original Brit flick with some good ideas that's begging for a few minutes more so its story can be told properly.
EDIT: Maybe time to remove the wordfilter on "e va"?
