Frank **** (2014, Domhnall Gleeson, Michael Fassbender, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Scoot McNairy) – Movie Review

Domhnall Gleeson gives an appealing star turn as a young wanna-be song-writer and musician Jon, who discovers he’s bitten off more than he can chew when he joins an eccentric pop band led by the mysterious and enigmatic Frank. It’s a variant on Gleeson’s very similar Hugh Grant wanabee turn in his last film, About Time, but this time it works perfectly. It’s a total treat to watch Gleeson’s skilled and charming oddball performance here.

But it’s Michael Fassbender who steals the movie as Frank, who’s mainly mysterious and enigmatic because he wears a huge papier mache head on his head. (Please don’t ask why!) This would be a huge disadvantage to almost any actor, but Fassbender shows his huge prowess by turning it into a triumph. He’s only got one brief scene headless, and boy how he makes it count. What a brilliantly clever actor he is!

It could be anybody under the fake head, but Fassbender convinces you it’s actually him. His solely vocal performance leaves most actors’ work at the starting post. You feel that Frank is a bit of a one-joke movie idea, but it never gets tired here. In fact, as the movie ends, you’re begging them to make a sequel. There’s plenty of room for one, by the way.

Maggie Gyllenhaal and Scoot McNairy have less showy, less appealing characters and roles to play as fellow band members, the crazy and volatile Clara and the keyboard player/manager Don, but they do them very well. Of course it must be frustrating for them that the film is really not about them, although they have a lot to do in it.

Jon Ronson and Peter Straughan’s fact-based screenplay is lovely, running the A-Z gamut of bring extremely funny, totally absurd, utterly freaky and finally incredibly touching. Lenny Abrahamson (What Richard Did, Room) directs crisply and sympathetically.

This is a brilliant, really special film that demands to be seen and eventually owned in everybody’s movie collection.

Based on journalist Ronson’s book, the film fictionalises the story of Frank, based on late British comedian Chris Sievey’s iconic comedy character Frank Sidebottom. In the 1980s Ronson played keyboards in the Frank Sidebottom Oh Blimey Big Band, in which Frank wore a big fake head and nobody outside his inner circle knew his true identity.

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(C) Derek Winnert 2014

Link to Derek Winnert’s home page for more film reviews: http://derekwinnert.com/