Back in 1994, director Jan de Bont delivered a fun action thriller about a bomb on a bus that would detonate if the bus' speed dropped below 50 MPH. While the film's title, "Speed," more accurately described the directorial pacing than the actual rate of motion in which the bus traveled, there's a new film in town that follows a similar path.
It's "Run Lola Run," a frenetic, eighty-some minute German film that could also be used as a slang definition for a certain amphetamine as it will certainly stimulate the central nervous system of anyone who sees it.
Virtually nonstop in momentum, this whirlwind of a film will often leave audiences both breathless and exhilarated. When compared to the big budget, bloated Hollywood summer blockbusters that promise to deliver the goods but often don't, you certainly won't go wrong with this film that easily gives audiences the most revved up bang for your buck.
The winner of the audience award at this year's Sundance Film Festival, "Lola" is the work of German writer and director Tom Tykwer ("Winter Sleepers"), a filmmaker determined to breathe some life back into what has become an otherwise dour German cinema. With a pulsating techno- pop score by Johnny Klimek, Reinhold Heil and Tykwer himself, as well as innovative camera work and rapid fire editing, Tykwer's mixture of film, video, animation and stills has clearly succeeded and certainly is a big heaping of delicious eye candy.
As such, the film comes off as something of a clever combination of a trendy music video, an adventurous video game and a thrilling amusement park ride. That's because all of those clearly favor people looking for the quick or hyper thrill and this film certainly delivers all of that and more.
It's due to the temporal elements, however, that the film most closely resembles those elements. Much like a music video that doesn't suffer from repeated viewings, a roller coaster that one repeatedly rides again and again for the same thrill, and a video game segment that can be reset back to the beginning if a player doesn't win, the film offers audiences versions of all three.
By literally rewinding the clock and allowing the events to unfold before us again twice more, the film successfully plays off the old "what if" scenario commonly found in time travel stories. That part concerns the notion that just one minute change in the past -- such as leaving the house a moment later than before -- can have major ramifications.
While the characters here don't knowingly travel back in time, they do receive several opportunities to relive the past -- and rather crucial -- twenty minutes of their lives. That may sound somewhat familiar to moviegoers, especially if they've seen recent films such as "Go!" "Twice Upon a Yesterday" or "Open Your Eyes" where the plot jumps through time and what you see isn't necessarily what you'll ultimately get.
Whereas it might even most familiar with "Sliding Doors" in that various versions of the same story are told, there is a small, but crucial difference. Beyond the contrasting genres (this one's certainly not a romantic drama), while the Gwyneth Paltrow vehicle has parallel stories unfolding simultaneously from one seemingly insignificant change, this one plays out a mostly similar story three times from start to finish, where the minor change in each creates vastly different outcomes.
That also holds true with some interesting little bits where we see near subliminal flash frames of miscellaneous characters' future lives and how they're affected by ever-so-slight changes in the way in which Lola runs past them or interacts with them on the street.
Although one is never really sure if the two additional stories are "real" or just imagined scenarios (a point brought to our attention by early statements such as "How do we know what we think we know?" and "Why do we believe in anything at all?"), the fact that the audience has superior position -- where we know what happened in the early stories and then watch in anticipation to see how the new versions will vary -- keeps the proceedings both compelling and entertaining.
Even so, for avid moviegoers the jumping through time "trick" may begin to start feeling a bit too familiar nowadays, especially after so many recent films have used that temporal device. What sets the film apart, however, is the sheer frenetic approach that Tykwer takes in telling the story. While most of those other films take their sweet time in unfolding, the thrill of this one comes from the near "damn the torpedoes" manner in which both the protagonist and her director tackle their respective goals.
Fueled by the rhythmically pumping techno soundtrack, Tykwer stomps down on the accelerator and rarely lets up, often zipping the camera right alongside his protagonist or employing the old split screen effect so that the intensity is raised a notch or two.
By combining cinematographer Frank Griebe's ("Winter Sleepers") often fun and quite hyper camera techniques and visuals with video clips, rapid fire stills and even similarly paced animation (all of which obviously kept editor Mathilde Bonnefoy quite busy), the film's overall effect may feel too experimental for some. Nevertheless, most will probably find it nothing short of mesmerizing.
The same holds true for the performance by Franka Potente ("Am I Beautiful?," "Opernball") as Lola. Her sense of urgency is clearly defined and one finds themselves easily rooting for her to succeed despite knowing next to nothing about her.
That's where the film runs into some problems. While the picture works quite well as a "ride," it needs a bit more subtext to make it more memorable, let alone allow it to be considered a classic in the genre.
Much like the tenth ride on the same roller coaster may still be fun, it begins to suffer a bit from that "same old, same old" feeling where you wish there was more context to the proceedings. Although the film's a visceral blast to experience, you begin to wish that it had a bit more heart and soul and that we knew something more about these characters.
Beyond Potente, the rest of them -- such as Lola's boyfriend played by Moritz Bleibtreu ("Knocking on Heaven's Door") -- are even less developed and easily could have been played in any sort of various ways by any number of performers without any noticeable impact on the overall proceedings. While we easily follow along simply due to the energy that Potente and Tykwer put into it, a bit more fat mixed in with the agile muscle would have made the film more tasty.
Nonetheless, it's still a blast to watch and kudos should to Tykwer for reinvigorating a German film industry that had recently become rather full (and apparently not satisfactorily profitable). Once this young writer/director puts some more substance and emotion in his films, however, you'll see a real powerhouse of a filmmaker. Meanwhile, simply sit back, keep your arms and hands inside the car at all times, and enjoy the ride he's currently built for us. We give "Run Lola Run" a 7.5 out of 10.
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