A drama centered on a go-go dancer with multiple personality disorder who struggles to remain her true self and begins working with a psychotherapist to uncover the mystery of the inner ghosts that haunt her.
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Reviews
Very best movie i ever watch
Sorry, this movie sucks
Disapointment
A film with more than the usual spoiler issues. Talking about it in any detail feels akin to handing you a gift-wrapped present and saying, "I hope you like it -- It's a thriller about a diabolical secret experiment."
Frankie (Halle Berry) is a go-go dancer who is struggling with multiple personality disorder (and does her best to try and hide it from her friends and employers). However, one such outburst lands Frankie in jail and in order to avoid jail-time she voluntarily checks herself into a psychiatric hospital. Once there she decides to work with psychotherapist Oz (Stellan Skarsgard)in order to try to gain an understanding of the inner ghosts that haunt her.As well as being the leading actress in this film Halle Berry is also one of the producers so this project clearly meant quite a lot to her - this is perhaps reflected in her performance here and I could see that she really gave this her all. The story is reasonably interesting and the film is well-paced, if not particularly well-structured. So on the one hand, you get a strong lead performance with few, if any, dull moments but there were a few things that kept gnawing away at me whilst I was watching Frankie & Alice...The film is structured with a non-linear narrative and normal films of this nature can be difficult to follow, but when you have a non-linear narrative in a film dealing with multiple personalities it does become a bit too much from time to time - this wasn't helped by the fact that in the early stages of the film that I was struggling to get to grips with which personality was which and how each personality slotted into the story. In the latter stages of the film I was starting to get my head round it all, but it was a struggle at times. Halle Berry's performance is good and certainly memorable, but sadly I didn't always find the screenplay complimented her performance all that well - I didn't think that her other personalities were developed as well as they could have been meaning that I found that I couldn't quite connect with/or get into Frankie's mind-set as much as I should have been able to.Despite my objections above, the film has enough of interest about it to make it worth watching and as already mentioned Halle Berry gives a stellar performance (albeit at times it's a slightly overwhelming one/two woman type performance).
Sometimes it's easy to dismiss things or take them for granted. Watching Halle Berry, the ageless one, performing here is a treat. And it's a big obstacle she has to overcome. Because she could have easily drifted into ridiculous with her portrayal. Unknowingly so, especially if the director wouldn't have noticed either.But playing it the way she does, you believe her and all the sudden changes she goes through. It helps having Stellan at her side. It's also nice to see the wife of the Cosby show in this, even in a small role like this. The movie/story itself is based on a true story, but don't be put off by that. It was a story worth being told
When a co-worker asked me today how was my weekend, I answered perfect. Friday 7:45 a.m., Halle Berry was on the Steve Harvey Morning Show (radio). 7:05 p.m., I'm at a cinema buying a ticket to see the movie. I go to Eatzi's in Plano, TX and I'm walking into the theater exactly when the show begins, 7:55 p.m. Flashback: at lunch I reflected on what I heard that morning, more than one personality possessing a body. It made me wonder if Jesus healed this condition or would this be a psychiatric case, not involving religion, not requiring its intervention.Frankie and Alice is only a movie, it's not a "film." It wasn't a cinematic experience. Well, can the same be said about Arbitrage (Richard Gere) or Birth (Nicole Kidman)? Birth is my favorite of the three, and it was a film, not a movie.I would like to mention two things that weren't right for me. I thought the home of the psychiatrist was a bit rich, too rich. The movie showed a connection between Frankie and Alice but Frankie's connection to "Genius" was not developed. In addition to "Genius" orbiting wide, the kind neighbor who appears in the laundromat scene also orbited wide. These characters were expendable.I think six to eight stars is a reasonable score for this movie.
As one who lives with Dissociative Identity Disorder, I found the film engaging, honest and true to life. I did find it interesting that Dr. Oz refers to Frankie as having Dissociative Identity Disorder--since that name for the disorder was not around in the 1970s. Halle Berry portrays someone with a mental health issue in a convincing way--and portrays the issues of living with DID very well. The movie is well written and cast. My only complaint was that there was too little time spent showing genius...who is her helping alter. I know mine was out a lot more than I was before I became aware of the alters. It took Berry years to get this project out, sadly the release even now is very limited. It would go a long way toward helping others understand this disorder.