Definitely, psychopathology is one of the most difficult fields of subjects for fiction - and why? Because it deals with CLINICAL cases, which are individual by excellence; you need a huge deal of professional acumen and experience to make it reach the universal level, thus achieving that PARTICULAR quality that lays at the core of any artistic product. Unfortunately, experience is one thing that Gerald McMorrow sorely lacks - I mean, after barely one S.F. short movie? Get a life! Besides this basic fallacy, "Franklyn" suffers of a total failure at the storytelling level. It's slow-paced (paradoxically, although it purports to be springy and captivating) and narrated in a muddled way - reminding us again that there is an enormous difference between being "ambiguous" and "unclear", between "subtlety" and "messiness". One couldn't care the less about the motives that drove the characters to madness, when we can't even follow the narrative at an elementary level.
As such, it's no surprise that in the last quarter, when things seems to gather at least a bit of momentum, it's much too late to retrieve anything. The final showdown, far of being "tragic", is merely hysteric, and the last shot, with the two survivors in the street, falls definitely to the ludicrous level.
The only gain is the splendid atmosphere of Meanwhile city, the masterful sets of Laurence Dorman, superbly photographed by Ben Davis, and the pervasive schizophrenic feeling of the imaginary theocratic dystopia. Definitely, it would be worth to put all that into a movie. One day...
As such, it's no surprise that in the last quarter, when things seems to gather at least a bit of momentum, it's much too late to retrieve anything. The final showdown, far of being "tragic", is merely hysteric, and the last shot, with the two survivors in the street, falls definitely to the ludicrous level.
The only gain is the splendid atmosphere of Meanwhile city, the masterful sets of Laurence Dorman, superbly photographed by Ben Davis, and the pervasive schizophrenic feeling of the imaginary theocratic dystopia. Definitely, it would be worth to put all that into a movie. One day...