Frankie
Sony Pictures Classics | Release Date: October 25, 2019 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
55
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 29 Critic Reviews
Positive:
10
Mixed:
18
Negative:
1
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
80
Los Angeles TimesGary GoldsteinOct 24, 2019
Although it may initially seem like a fairly wispy story of family dynamics and romantic uncertainty, there’s a subtle depth to the proceedings that creeps up on you in resonant ways. Read full review
75
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Nathalie AtkinsonNov 7, 2019
Sachs manages this day in the life without cumbersome exposition thanks to the texture of this casting, all while keeping the disparate concerns of three generations moving. Read full review
75
Washington PostMark LiebermanOct 28, 2019
Thanks to a superb cast and a welcome strain of comedic energy, Frankie turns out to be more than a pretty travelogue with melodrama. Read full review
75
RogerEbert.comTomris LafflySep 9, 2019
A film that feels like a sumptuous beach read on a lazy sunny afternoon. Read full review
75
The A.V. ClubA.A. Dowd May 23, 2019
The whole thing struck me as pleasant, nicely judged, and unremarkable, right up to a final shot so graceful and moving that it sent waves of poignancy backwards through the movie. Read full review
75
IndieWireDavid EhrlichMay 23, 2019
It drifts by with all the force of a mild summer breeze, and — as is typical of Sachs’ jewel-like work — it leaves you feeling like you could have spent another 90 minutes with these characters. For better or worse, this one also leaves you feeling like Sachs could have spent another 90 minutes with these characters, too. Read full review
70
The Hollywood ReporterDavid RooneyMay 23, 2019
Sachs offers many gentle pleasures in his latest film ... That said, this is definitely a second-tier entry from the director. Read full review
70
TheWrapBen CrollMay 23, 2019
The film studiously avoids melodrama or theatrics of any sort, enfolding instead as a kind of melancholic tone poem. Read full review
65
The AtlanticDavid SimsOct 25, 2019
All of these actors deliver the kind of subtle work that’s rarely seen in major Hollywood movies. Still, while Sachs is one of the most exciting voices in American indie cinema, his European sojourn is sometimes a little too sleepy for its own good—beautiful in the moment, but too gentle to leave a lasting impression. Read full review
63
Slant MagazineDiego SemereneOct 23, 2019
Only Marisa Tomei’s face can compete with Isabelle Huppert’s ability to turn even the sappiest of scenarios into a nuanced tour de force. Read full review
60
The TelegraphTim RobeyJun 4, 2021
This is Sachs in Éric-Rohmer-abroad mode, and some way off top form. Frankie suggests a gloriously civilised shoot more than it coheres into much of a film. Read full review
60
Arizona RepublicGarrett MitchellOct 31, 2019
Though it's certainly well-acted, the quiet film is a retread of familiar recent dramas about doomed heroines like in "Still Alice." But this version prompted me to look up one-way flights to Portugal instead of weeping about a character's looming destiny. Read full review
60
New York Magazine (Vulture)Alison WillmoreOct 24, 2019
Frankie is a messy movie that spreads itself too thin over this sprawling cast of characters. Read full review
60
Rolling StonePeter TraversOct 23, 2019
The film stubbornly resists coming together as more than a series of hit-and-miss vignettes. Only near the end, in a stunning tableau that illustrates how individual desire laughs at the plans of God — and the ringmaster Frankie — does Sachs turn his wisp of film into something funny, touching and vital. Read full review
60
VarietyOwen GleibermanMay 23, 2019
There are a few surprises in Frankie, and the movie, in its placid way, wants to deliver a tug of revelation of what life is about. The trouble is, life at the end of this day doesn’t look very much different than it did at the start of the day. Read full review
58
The A.V. ClubMike D'AngeloOct 22, 2019
Éric Rohmer used to make one of these pictures practically every year, but it’s a tricky genre to pull off, and Sachs (working with regular co-writer Mauricio Zacharias) doesn’t supply the neurotic wit that would make Frankie distinctive rather than just… nice. Read full review
58
The Film StageRory O'ConnorMay 23, 2019
Huppert is great at this, and of course she is. It’s elsewhere that the film falters. Read full review
50
Movie NationRoger MooreNov 14, 2019
Frankie is filled with absurdly frank confessions and moments of over-sharing as a stellar cast breaks up into pairs for scenes that don’t so much go anywhere as flesh in the back stories in front of one of the loveliest tourist towns on The Continent. Read full review
50
Original-CinLiam LaceyNov 7, 2019
The result is a work stiff with pointed talk and chance encounters, little of which feels original. The acting, while variable, often has a stilted, recitative quality, as if the characters, rather than family members, recently met at a script readings. Read full review
50
Boston GlobeTy BurrNov 6, 2019
Ira Sachs’s muted family drama has locations to make a moviegoer swoon, rich music and cinematography, acting that’s attentive and wise. All that’s missing is a story. Read full review
50
Chicago Sun-TimesRichard RoeperNov 6, 2019
The scenes between Gleeson and Huppert are rendered in muted tones and are sweet and effective. Subplots involving Sylvia and Paul are flat and uninteresting. Read full review
50
San Francisco ChronicleG. Allen JohnsonOct 30, 2019
It becomes somewhat pleasantly watchable because the muddled script and dangling story lines are delivered and explored by truly charismatic actors who can, at least for a while, breathe life into something where none should exist...Even if they’re moping in a corner. Read full review
50
The New York TimesA.O. ScottOct 24, 2019
Huppert’s uncanny mixture of self-possession and wildness is never not interesting to watch, but when Frankie is off screen she takes the film’s life force with her. Read full review
50
The PlaylistCaroline TsaiMay 23, 2019
Meandering ... The film somehow lacks the structural cogency necessary to support a compelling narrative, while also encompassing enough discernible plot conventions to reveal a screenwriter’s meddling. Read full review
40
EmpireIan FreerMay 27, 2021
It has its pleasures but after the nuance and emotional hits of Love Is Strange and Little Men, Frankie is a disappointment. Not even la Reine, Isabelle Huppert, can elevate this one. Read full review
40
Austin ChronicleMarc SavlovNov 13, 2019
The ensemble cast is uniformly first-rate, but Sachs' moribund movie is a slog – all those scenes of Frankie’s friends and family wandering through the woods made my feet hurt. Read full review
40
Screen DailyJonathan RomneyMay 23, 2019
The episodic, ruminative and very talky mood suggests something between Chekhov and Eric Rohmer – or at moments, Woody Allen without the humour. That’s not to say that the film is entirely dry, but there’s an earnestness about it and occasionally a leadenness in the acting. Read full review
40
CineVueJohn BleasdaleMay 23, 2019
It’s just Huppert on autopilot and like that dry white wine, you can have too much of it. Read full review
20
The GuardianPeter BradshawMay 23, 2019
The scenes have no fire or lightness and sometimes they are embarrassing. ... Sachs is such a talented film-maker, but this is a baffling misstep. Read full review
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