Frankie & Alice

Last updated

Frankie & Alice
Frankie and alice.jpg
Theatrical release poster
Directed by Geoffrey Sax
Screenplay byCheryl Edwards
Marko King
Mary King
Jonathan Watters
Joe Shrapnel
Anna Waterhouse
Story by Oscar Janiger
Philip Goldberg
Cheryl Edwards
Produced by Halle Berry
Vince Cirrincione
Simon DeKaric
Hassain Zaidi
StarringHalle Berry
Stellan Skarsgård
Cinematography Newton Thomas Sigel
Edited byDavid M. Richardson
Music by Andrew Lockington
Production
company
Access Motion Pictures
Distributed by CodeBlack Films
Lions Gate Entertainment
(United States 2014)
Release dates
  • May 17, 2010 (2010-05-17)(Cannes)
  • December 10, 2010 (2010-12-10)(United States)
Running time
101 minutes
CountryCanada
LanguageEnglish
Box office$706,546 [1]

Frankie & Alice is a 2010 Canadian drama film directed by Geoffrey Sax, starring Halle Berry. Filming began in Vancouver, British Columbia, in November 2008, and ended in January 2009. To qualify for awards season, the film opened in a limited release on December 10, 2010. It is based on a true story about a popular go-go dancer/stripper in the 1970s who has dissociative identity disorder.

Contents

While the film received mixed reviews from critics, Berry's performance was widely praised and she received several accolades, including a nomination for the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress in a Motion Picture – Drama.

Plot

Frankie is performing at a Los Angeles club in 1973. She is one of the best strippers at the club, and often attracts the attention of wealthy businessmen. One night, the club's female employees go out for a "Girls Night". As the girls observe all the men at the bar, Frankie gets the attention of a well-known bartender. She agrees to go to his home for sex. Before the two can engage in any sexual activity, Frankie switches to an alter ego, and cracks the man's head open with a picture frame. Word of Frankie's violent activity spreads to the strip club quickly, and Frankie is fired from the needed job. Similar episodes occur while Frankie is at the laundromat and at a wedding.

Frankie starts psychotherapy with Doctor Oz. During a session, Frankie learns that she has two alters: Genius, a seven-year-old child; and Alice, a Southern white racist, whom Frankie struggles to overcome. Through regular sessions with Dr. Oz, Frankie begins to recall the traumatic events that led to the dissociative splits in her personality. She realizes that when she was a teenager she was in love with a white man who died in a car accident while they were on the road. In the same session, she also connects with the memory of the birth of her child. Moments after the birth, Frankie's mother realizes that the child is half-white and kills it, thus triggering Frankie's personality to split.

After she watches the taped sessions, and puts everything together, Frankie begins the healing process, taking control of her life and semi-integrating the personalities that Dr. Oz assures her will always be present.

Cast

Production

The film spent a decade in development, with Berry involved in the project since the mid-1990s. [2] [3] Filming took place in 2008. [2]

Release

Frankie & Alice had its world premiere in May 2010 at the Cannes Film Festival. [2] It went on to screen at the AFI Film Festival that November, and was given a limited release in the United States on December 10, 2010, to qualify for awards. [2] The film's producers, Access Motion Pictures, had planned for a wider release the following February, but these plans did not materialize even as Berry was nominated for a Golden Globe Award and won an NAACP Image Award for her performance. [2]

In September 2013, Codeblack Films acquired distribution rights to the film. [4] [2] The film was given a wider re-release on April 4, 2014. [5]

Reception

Critical response

On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 21% based on reviews from 33 critics. The website's critics consensus states: "Halle Berry gives it her all (and then some), but Frankie & Alice is ultimately too narratively strained and clumsily assembled to do her performance justice." [6] On Metacritic it has a score of 47% based on reviews from 14 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews". [7]

Writing of the Cannes Film Festival screening, The Hollywood Reporter described the film as "a well-wrought psychological drama that delves into the dark side of one woman's psyche". The review also said Halle Berry was "spellbinding" as Frankie, with "rock-solid" supporting performances. [8]

Accolades

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Halle Berry</span> American actress (born 1966)

Halle Maria Berry is an American actress. She began her career as a model and entered several beauty contests, finishing as the first runner-up in the Miss USA pageant and coming in sixth in the Miss World 1986. Her breakthrough film role was in the romantic comedy Boomerang (1992), alongside Eddie Murphy, which led to roles in The Flintstones (1994) and Bulworth (1998) as well as the television film Introducing Dorothy Dandridge (1999), for which she won a Primetime Emmy Award and a Golden Globe Award.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Michelle Pfeiffer</span> American actress

Michelle Marie Pfeiffer is an American actress. A prolific performer whose screen career spans over four decades, she became one of Hollywood's most bankable stars during the 1980s and 1990s, as well as one of the era's most popular sex symbols. The recipient of various accolades, she has received a Golden Globe Award and a British Academy Film Award, in addition to nominations for three Academy Awards and a Primetime Emmy Award. In 2007, she was awarded a motion picture star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Golden Globe Awards</span> Award of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association

The Golden Globe Awards are accolades bestowed by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association starting in January 1944, recognizing excellence in both American and international film and television. Beginning in 2022, there are 105 members of the HFPA.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Renée Zellweger</span> American actress (born 1969)

Renée Kathleen Zellweger is an American actress. The recipient of various accolades, including two Academy Awards, two British Academy Film Awards, and four Golden Globe Awards, she was one of the world's highest-paid actresses by 2007.

The NAACP Image Awards is an annual awards ceremony presented by the U.S.-based National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) to honor outstanding performances in film, television, theatre, music, and literature. Similar to other awards, like the Oscars and the Grammys, the over 40 categories of the Image Awards are voted on by the award organization's members. Honorary awards have also been included, such as the President's Award, the Chairman's Award, the Entertainer of the Year, and the Hall of Fame Award. Beyoncé is the All-Time leading winner with 25 wins as a solo artist.

<i>Gothika</i> 2003 film by Mathieu Kassovitz

Gothika is a 2003 American supernatural psychological horror-thriller film directed by Mathieu Kassovitz, written by Sebastian Gutierrez, and starring Halle Berry, Robert Downey Jr., Penélope Cruz, Charles S. Dutton, John Carroll Lynch, and Bernard Hill. The film follows a psychiatrist who finds herself incarcerated in the penitentiary in which she works, accused of brutally murdering her own husband.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Emily Blunt</span> British actress (born 1983)

Emily Olivia Laura Blunt is a British actress. She has received many accolades, including a Golden Globe Award and a Screen Actors Guild Award, in addition to nominations for three British Academy Film Awards. Forbes ranked her as one of the highest-paid actresses in the world in 2020.

<i>Soul Food</i> (film) 1997 American comedy-drama film by George Tillman Jr

Soul Food is a 1997 American comedy-drama film written and directed by George Tillman Jr. in his major studio debut. Featuring an ensemble cast, the film stars Vanessa Williams, Vivica A. Fox, Nia Long, Michael Beach, Mekhi Phifer, Jeffrey D. Sams, Irma P. Hall, Gina Ravera and Brandon Hammond. The story centers on the trials of an extended Black-American family, held together by longstanding family traditions which begin to fade as serious problems take center stage.

Best Actress is the name of an award which is presented by various film, television and theatre organisations, festivals, and people's awards to leading actresses in a film, television series, television film or play. The first Best Actress award was awarded for acting in a film, on May 16, 1929 by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) at the Academy Awards to Janet Gaynor for her role of Diane in 7th Heaven, Angela in Street Angel and The Wife - Indre in Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans. In theatre, it was first awarded on April 6, 1947 by the American Theatre Wing and The Broadway League at the Tony Awards to Ingrid Bergman for her role of Mary Grey / Joan of Arc in Joan of Lorraine and to Helen Hayes for her role of Addie in Happy Birthday. In television, it was first awarded on January 23, 1951 by Academy of Television Arts & Sciences at the Primetime Emmy Awards to Gertrude Berg for her role of Molly in The Goldbergs. In a film festival, presented as the Volpi Cup, it was first awarded between August 1–20, 1934 by the Venice Film Festival to Katharine Hepburn for her role of Josephine 'Jo' March in Little Women.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sophie Okonedo</span> English actress (born 1968)

Sophie Okonedo is an English actress and narrator. The recipient of a Tony Award, she has been nominated for an Academy Award, three BAFTA Television Awards, a Golden Globe Award, and a Primetime Emmy Award. She began her film career in the British coming-of-age drama Young Soul Rebels (1991) before appearing in Ace Ventura: When Nature Calls (1995), and Stephen Frears's Dirty Pretty Things (2002).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kimberly Elise</span> American actress

Kimberly Elise Trammel is an American film and television actress. She made her feature film debut in Set It Off (1996), and later received critical acclaim for her performance in Beloved (1998).

<i>The Color Purple</i> (1985 film) 1985 film by Steven Spielberg

The Color Purple is a 1985 American epic coming-of-age period drama film directed by Steven Spielberg and written by Menno Meyjes, based on the Pulitzer Prize-winning 1982 novel of the same name by Alice Walker. It was Spielberg's eighth film as a director, and marked a turning point in his career, as it was a departure from the summer blockbusters for which he had become known. It was also the first feature film directed by Spielberg for which John Williams did not compose the music, instead featuring a score by Quincy Jones, who also produced. The cast stars Whoopi Goldberg in her breakthrough role, with Danny Glover, Oprah Winfrey in her film debut, Margaret Avery, Rae Dawn Chong, Willard Pugh, and Adolph Caesar.

<i>Cadillac Records</i> 2008 musical biographical film

Cadillac Records is a 2008 American biographical drama film written and directed by Darnell Martin. The film explores the musical era from the early 1940s to the late 1960s, chronicling the life of the influential Chicago-based record-company executive Leonard Chess, and a few of the musicians who recorded for Chess Records.

<i>A Map of the World</i> (film) 1999 American drama film

A Map of the World is a 1999 American drama film, based on the 1994 novel of the same name by Jane Hamilton. Directed by Scott Elliott and produced by Kathleen Kennedy and Frank Marshall, the film stars Sigourney Weaver, Julianne Moore and David Strathairn. Weaver was nominated for a Golden Globe Award for Best Actress in a Motion Picture Drama for her performance.

<i>Pariah</i> (2011 film) Film by Dee Rees

Pariah is a 2011 American drama film written and directed by Dee Rees. It tells the story of Alike, a 17-year-old Black teenager embracing her identity as a lesbian. It premiered at the 2011 Sundance Film Festival and was awarded the Excellence in Cinematography Award.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Taylour Paige</span> American actress and dancer (born 1990)

Taylour Dominique Paige-Angulo is an American actress and dancer. She is best known for her role as Ahsha Hayes in the VH1 sports drama series Hit the Floor, and has gained recognition for her performances in the films Jean of the Joneses (2016), White Boy Rick (2018), Ma Rainey's Black Bottom (2020), Boogie (2021), and Zola (2020). Her performance in the latter film won her the Independent Spirit Award for Best Female Lead.

<i>Kidnap</i> (2017 film) 2017 American film by Luis Prieto

Kidnap is a 2017 American action-thriller film directed by Luis Prieto and written by Knate Lee. It stars Halle Berry, Sage Correa, Chris McGinn, and Lew Temple. The plot follows a working mother who pursues her young son's captors. The film was produced by di B Pictures, Lotus Entertainment, 606 Films, Gold Star Films, Ingenious Media, Well Go USA, and Rumble Entertainment on a budget of $21 million. It was announced in September 2014, and filmed in New Orleans and Slidell, Louisiana from October to December 2014.

References

  1. ↑ "Frankie & Alice". Box Office Mojo . Retrieved August 8, 2020.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Khatchatourian, Maane (April 2, 2014). "Why Did Halle Berry's 'Frankie & Alice' Languish on the Shelf?". Variety. Retrieved March 10, 2023.
  3. 1 2 "Frankie & Alice". VincentCirrincione.com. January 21, 2010. Retrieved June 11, 2019.
  4. ↑ Shaw, Lucas (September 25, 2013). "Halle Berry Film 'Frankie & Alice' Acquired by Codeblack Films for 2014 Release". Yahoo! . Retrieved March 10, 2023.
  5. ↑ "Frankie & Alice (2014 Re-release)". Box Office Mojo . Retrieved March 10, 2023.
  6. ↑ "Frankie & Alice (2014)". Rotten Tomatoes . Retrieved May 4, 2020.
  7. ↑ "Frankie & Alice". Metacritic . Retrieved May 4, 2020.
  8. ↑ Byrge, Duane (October 15, 2010). "Frankie & Alice". The Hollywood Reporter. Archived from the original on January 26, 2013.
  9. ↑ Knegt, Peter (December 13, 2010). "African-American Critics Go For "The Social Network"". IndieWire. Retrieved March 10, 2023.
  10. ↑ Cane, Clay (December 14, 2010). "African-American Film Critics Association Honors Halle Berry and 'The Social Network'". BET. Retrieved March 10, 2023.
  11. ↑ "Frankie and Alice". Golden Globe Awards . Retrieved July 9, 2020.
  12. ↑ Frankel, Daniel (March 6, 2011). "The 42nd NAACP Image Awards: Complete Winners List". TheWrap . Retrieved March 10, 2023.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.